


As the Sky Tears Open

by BlueNightmare



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Friends to Lovers, Romance, Rope Bondage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-04-07 08:55:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14077356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueNightmare/pseuds/BlueNightmare
Summary: Jasmine's duties weigh heavily on her narrow shoulders. Erika offers her a temporary escape, but she has plans of her own for her dearest friend.





	1. Through the Rain

Weary brown eyes stared into their own reflection.

Her head resting comfortably against the padded back of her seat, her long brown tresses spilling down her narrow shoulders, Jasmine gazed through the rain-mottled window of the bus, watching the trees and grasslands of Route 8 roll by. Almost lost behind the steadily-falling curtain of rain, the scenery had been transformed into a twisted maze of darkened shapes by the moonlight’s absence, the normally picturesque terrain rendered a sullen grey by the evening’s dismal clouds.

The phantom girl in the window continued to look back at her, tired and uncertain.

Young and mousy, her flowing locks held up in twin tufts at her temples by neat little hair decorations, her thin frame clad in a small white summer dress, it was little wonder that none of the other passengers realized that they were traveling with one of Johto's famous gym leaders. Not even the young man sitting right next to her, leafing through a Pokemon League pamphlet he'd picked up in Saffron City, had given her a second glance.

Not that Jasmine was complaining. The last thing she wanted right now was to be recognized, or challenged to a battle. All she wanted now was _this_ \- the calm quiet, the absence of all responsibility. Peace.

The longer it drew on, the more secure in her anonymity she became, and the more she relaxed into her seat, letting her fears melt away. Olivine City was far in the distance now, an entire region away, and she had left her worries behind with her Gym, safely in the hands of a stand-in leader who could more than hold her own. There was no pressure, no stress. The only sounds were blissfully hypnotic - the hum of the engine, the muted but constant sound of rain pattering against the window, the occasional noisy splash of tires through shallow puddles on the road. 

On any ordinary night, any ordinary trip, these sounds might have been enough to lull Jasmine into much-needed sleep, but tonight, the steadily tightening knot of anticipation in the pit of her stomach was enough to keep her wide awake.

Every passing second brought her that much closer to Celadon City, and to the girl she had traveled so far to see.

Over the last few weeks, it had been impossible to get Erika's pretty face and soft, strong voice out of her head. Oh, she’d grudgingly tried to stop thinking about her more times than she could count, but no matter how hard she had attempted to push her fellow gym leader to the back of her mind, fond thoughts of the serene yet serious young woman took up the space in her brain that she should have been devoting to perfecting battle strategies. 

Okay, maybe not just _fond_ thoughts, she had to admit to her reflection in the window, faced with the stare of a girl who knew better. Maybe it went a little further than that.

It hadn't started out that way, of course. Jasmine and Erika had been the best of friends for years, ever since they had met at a League conference on the Indigo Plateau. What had started as a simple meet and greet between the gym leaders of the neighboring Johto and Kanto regions had become the genesis of a cherished friendship, one no less close for the limitations of distance, and even after the two of them had returned to their faraway cities, Erika had only been a text or a video chat away, a constantly reassuring presence in her life.

Even after the electric train line was built between Saffron and Goldenrod, the responsibilities of work and family often kept each of them too busy to make the journey to see one another in person, shyness intervening when they didn't, but when the stresses of Jasmine's life as a gym leader and a carer for the lighthouse Ampharos threatened to crush her, Erika was there to keep her sane. When Erika was feeling down, Jasmine was there to lift her flagging spirits. 

When Erika accidentally left a latex catsuit hanging from her wardrobe door at the beginning of a video call, Jasmine had been on the other end of the line to see it.

She hadn't said anything, but the widening of her eyes had been enough to give the game away. Erika had caught her staring, realized her mistake far too late, and there had died any hope that the night's conversation would be anything but awkward.

Yet, despite her flushed-faced mortification, Erika hadn't shied away from the obvious questions written across Jasmine's face. She had been frank, confided in Jasmine despite her misgivings, and for the first time one of their conversations had veered towards the sexual. It wasn't a side of her life that she shared with many people - she was painfully aware of her public image as a pure, proper young woman, and while that image was more true than it was false, she also harbored certain interests far from gym battles and flower arranging and the things she was _supposed_ to like. Under the surface of the gentle, serene leader of the Celadon Gym lurked desires, _fetishes_ , the kind that made innocent Jasmine's breath catch and cheeks burn, just as Erika had known they would. 

The dark-haired girl had haltingly explained her secret kinks, her hesitant words gliding over topics close enough to touch but never landing, as if to look too closely might frighten Jasmine away. The more she spoke, the more Jasmine's less-than-disgusted reactions encouraged her, but she had never been completely comfortable speaking so plainly of her desires to her virginal friend, and she had clumsily ended the discussion with a wan smile and a not-too-subtle shift to a less tawdry topic, brushing away her embarrassment with words of battle training and technique. 

Jasmine had let her divert the conversation as she pleased, feeling more than a little guilty for making Erika expose such an intimate side of herself, but the mental images she'd planted hadn't faded with the topic. She had very little grasp of kink and the like, still a virgin at 19, but some of what Erika had haltingly described had caught her interest more than she was prepared to admit, haunting her thoughts for days afterward.

Maybe in a moment of weakness she'd given into them and read a little bit about it online. 

Maybe she'd looked at pictures.

Maybe.

Still, neither girl had broached the subject again during their next call, or the next or the next, and she had assumed that it would just be _one of those things_ , a silly little incident that would soon be forgotten amidst the countless happy memories the two girls shared. One awkward chat, one peek behind the curtain at things Erika liked to keep private. Nothing more.

The day Erika had answered Jasmine's call _wearing_ the catsuit had put paid to that.

~ ~ ~

She had politely attempted to ignore it - really, she had - but the smooth, chocolate brown surface of the ludicrously tight outfit caught the light every time Erika shifted in her chair, so distractingly shiny that Jasmine could barely keep her eyes off of it. It didn’t help that the suit hugged the dark-haired girl’s chest as closely as the rest of her body, clinging to the curves of her generous breasts like a second skin, revealing every contour of her body despite showing off no skin at all below her neck. 

No matter how hard she tried to keep them away, Jasmine found her eyes drawn to it again and again. It was all she could do to hope that Erika didn’t notice her little preoccupation, or guess at the thoughts whirring behind her innocent brown eyes.

Why was she wearing that? Had she had it on before Jasmine had called, and simply forgotten to change out of it? Or did she _want_ Jasmine to see it?

Why _would_ she have been wearing it earlier, anyway? Did she just like the sensation of it - Jasmine could barely imagine how it must feel - or had Erika been doing that... fetish stuff with somebody? 

And why had that last idea irked her?

" _Jasmine!_ "

"W-What?!" Jasmine had jerked in her seat, accusatory eyes flitting from Erika's breasts to her exasperated face. "You don't need to shout!"

“Perhaps if you had heard me call your name the first three times, I wouldn’t have needed to.” Erika's dark brown eyes had stared into hers as intensely as if they had been in the same room rather than a region away, her every carefully selected word a jab of disapproval. She hadn’t been genuinely angry, but her time spent as an instructor for a gym full of budding trainers had begun to rub off on her, infusing her voice with a teacher's steel. “Is something on your mind?"

Jasmine's cheeks had flushed bright red. She had never been a terribly good liar. "Uhh..."

A tiny smile betrayed Erika's amusement. “My attire, perhaps?"

Jasmine dropped her gaze to her keyboard.

That only made Erika's smile widen, like a crack spreading across smooth porcelain. "Would you like to know why I am wearing it tonight?”

There had been no point in denying it. “Um... yes?"

“Well, why don’t you answer a question for me first?” Erika had leaned closer to her webcam, her dark eyes interrogating. "A little while ago, when I told you about those... other interests of mine, you... you didn't judge me." She'd swallowed, the same nerves that had troubled her back then returning to torment her now. "You're not... I mean, you don't think that it's too strange. Do you?"

It _had_ seemed strange to Jasmine, but she sensed that that hadn't been quite what her friend had meant to ask. "I don't think you're strange, Erika."

That had seemed to settle her, though several long moments passed in silence before the older girl spoke anew. "That's good," she'd sighed, as if a burden had fallen from her narrow shoulders. Another moment of hesitation, and she looked Jasmine in the eye, her confidence bolstered. "So... have you thought any more about it?”

_Huh?!_ Frozen like a Deerling caught in headlights, Jasmine had barely managed to choke out an answer, hardly aware of the words that were falling out of her mouth. “S-should I have...?”

“Maybe.” Completely non-committal, giving away nothing, Erika had effortlessly thrown the ball back into Jasmine’s court. She wouldn’t be getting away from the question that easily.

“Um... well... the, uh, bondage thing?” Shamelessly stalling for time, Jasmine had mentally flailed for an answer. Should she tell the truth? Lie? Try to change the subject? She could feel her cheeks burning and knew that Erika could probably see the scarlet answer written across her face - yes, yes she _had_ been thinking about it - but she couldn’t quite manage to form the words, _any_ words. "Uhh... kind of... but..."

“Heehee. Don’t worry about it.” 

Erika had shrugged it off, dropping the subject so abruptly that Jasmine had been left wondering why she had even brought it up in the first place. It had taken her nearly a day to figure out that the cunning young woman had been deliberately testing her for a reaction, although whether she had been pleased with Jasmine’s, she didn’t know. “So, anyway... as I was saying, today’s challenger was a little harder to beat than usual...”

~ ~ ~

And that, again, had been that for a few weeks. The next time Erika had called, the catsuit was nowhere to be found, and Jasmine's attention had been much easier to keep under control for its absence. She hadn’t dared ask about it, and their conversations for the next month or so had fallen into a familiar, comfortable pattern.

Then, things had started to get busy.

The end-of-year holidays brought with them a tidal wave of gym challengers, as they so often did. Days when Jasmine might have faced two opponents brought twelve instead, and one match soon blurred into another, an endless wave of Furret and Pidgeotto crashing like waves against the dauntless wall of her Steelix, the occasional visit from a savvy Quilava or Marill trainer rarely enough to challenge her. Despite her quiet, reserved manner, she handed out many more beatings than badges, but still the ceaseless waves of challengers wore down even her steel, still she dedicated hours to training and to caring for the Ampharos at the city's lighthouse, and by the time the holidays were finally over she was exhausted both mentally and physically. Stress had turned the sweet girl into an irritable mess.

Only a sense of duty toward neglected Erika had motivated her to push past the barrier of weariness, switch on her laptop and make the call, barely even sure if the other girl would answer her, but her heart had lifted when the raven-haired girl's familiar face had appeared on her screen, a fond smile turning soft pink lips.

It felt like she was finally home.

~ ~ ~

“You really need a break, Jasmine.”

Once the avalanche of apologies and explanations had finally subsided and Erika had been able to slip a word in edgewise, those had been the very first words out of her mouth. Not words of irritation or unhappiness, as Jasmine had half-expected, but a heartfelt expression of sympathetic concern that had melted her fears away.

“My schedule is easing off already,” she’d murmured as she rested her folded arms on the table in front of the keyboard and lowered her chin to her wrists, letting her wheeled chair roll backward to accommodate her lazy slump. “I just need to relax a little. I’ll be fine in the morning.”

“No, you won’t.” Now _there_ was the irritated glare she had been expecting. “I know you too well, Jasmine. You will wake up exhausted and you will throw yourself back into your training or your public obligations or... or something that keeps you too busy to rest, and you will finish the day just as tired as you are right now. Won't you?”

Jasmine hadn’t objected. How could she, when they both knew that Erika was right?

“I know that you have a demanding job. I do, too.” Erika's piercing gaze showed her no mercy even when Jasmine could no longer bear to look her in the eye. “But you really need to start making time for yourself, Jasmine. How are you going to do that job if you’ve worn yourself down like this?”

“I...” Jasmine trailed off. There was not defending this position, and she knew it.

“You know you can’t keep going like this.” Ever the shrewd tactician, Erika had sensed that she was getting through to her friend and unforgivingly pushed her advantage. “Take a break for a few days. Travel somewhere nice. Go on a date for once. Do _something_. Hey, you could come to Kanto and visit me for a few days if you wanted. I have a spare room.”

Even knowing that Erika was right, Jasmine had been on the fence about actually taking a vacation until that last suggestion. “...Really?”

“Of course! We haven’t actually met face to face in forever.” Erika had tapped a finger against her chin, thoughtful. “Have you ever been to Celadon before? It's not as big and noisy as Saffron. There are more open spaces. More gardens. The people here are very friendly, and the cafes are splendid. I think you'd love it here." 

Could she really get away from it all? This was sounding better and better, and the idea alone was enough to restore some of Jasmine’s sapped energy to her. Seeing Erika in person for the first time in years would be wonderful - she owed her closest friend a lot of hugs - and the thought of leaving her many responsibilities behind, just for a little while, reinvigorated her more than she was proud to admit. She was one of the youngest gym leaders in Johto, and caring for Amphy at the lighthouse added even another obligation to her already full plate. Sometimes, the pressure was crushing, and perhaps she hadn't hidden it from Erika as well as she thought she had.

"I think it sounds really nice," she said at last, smiling against the heel of her hand that seemed the only thing keeping her upright. Maybe that was ultimately why she said it. Maybe tiredness blunted her better judgment. "But if I _did_ go see you... would you just jump on me and tie me up as soon as my back was turned?”

The moment those words left her mouth she wished she could take them back, but if Erika was offended, she didn’t show it. She simply gave Jasmine an enigmatic little grin, one eyebrow lifted in inquiry. “Why? Do you want me to?”

Okay, so _maybe_ there was a little fluttering in Jasmine’s belly when she considered it. _Maybe_ she’d given a little more thought to Erika’s earlier confessions than she had let on. _Maybe_ she liked the idea, on a level that she didn’t really even understand.

_Maybe_ Erika felt like dancing a little jig of victory as she noted the flush in Jasmine’s cheeks as the the poor girl fumbled for an answer. 

The dark-haired girl remained as outwardly composed as ever, but she couldn’t help feeling like an angler who’d just received her first tug of the line. “So...” she murmured as the awkward silence drew on, “should I set up a bed in my spare room?”

Again words failed Jasmine, but she managed a blushing nod.

~ ~ ~

And so, here she was. 

Still staring out the mottled window of the bus, Jasmine turned familiar thoughts over in her head, fretting now as much as she had back in Olivine with the weight of a gym on her shoulders. 

She’d never _explicitly_ agreed to the whole ‘getting tied up’ thing, had she? They hadn't talked about it in any detail since she had foolishly brought it up. Was it implied by the very fact that she was visiting, or would Erika have already forgotten all about it? Did Jasmine _want_ her to forget? She’d managed to ignore the many questions that had been running through her mind ever since that day while she was watching the scenery slide by, but the road sign that had flashed past moments ago brought the issue back into relief, along with a raw surge of panic.

CELADON CITY - 3KM

ROUTE 16 BYPASS - NEXT LEFT

She was out of time. She hadn’t thought about this enough. She was going to arrive in Celadon, find Erika at the bus station waiting for her, and immediately make a fool of herself. Maybe she should have stayed home and stuck with what she knew, but it was too late now. She was here, and there was no going back.

Try as she might to shake off her worries, they stayed with her until long after the trees and grassland of Route 8 had turned to brickwork and rain-streaked lights.


	2. Out of the Tumult

When Jasmine departed the bus at the Celadon depot with her non-descript suitcase in hand, Erika almost let her walk right on by.

She might have been the same old Jasmine as ever, small and shy and waifish, but seeing the little brunette in the flesh, with her own two eyes, was completely different to viewing her on a two-dimensional screen. She was here. Really here. Erika could actually reach out and _touch_ her, feel Jasmine's skin against hers, and the realization made her heart thud in her chest, a sudden surge of anxiety paralyzing her. 

The girl she harbored feelings for was right in front of her for the first time in years.

Jasmine didn't know how she felt, of course. Erika had never found the courage to tell her, tucking her affections away in the very back of her mind where her shy friend would never find them. The two of them had known each other for years now, but Erika had never detected even the slightest hint that Jasmine might _like_ girls, let alone like _her_ , and their friendship was simply too precious to gamble on feelings that she had hoped would go away in time. They hadn't, but she had learned to cope with them, concealing them from Jasmine and from herself as best a young woman could.

Of course, over the years, her traitorous brain had fed her a hundred different ways she could confess her feelings to Jasmine. A hundred more had surfaced in the last week, since the day of that fateful chat that had led to _this_.

A visit. A real, face to face visit. A terrible risk... but, that voice in the back of her head nagged, it could also be a wonderful opportunity.

Risks were something she was no stranger to of late, after all. Leaving the latex catsuit she enjoyed so much hanging in her webcam's view had been a foolish mistake by a tired mind, but she could have simply laughed it off - there was no need for her to go into detail on the topic, staining poor Jasmine's innocent ears, and there had _certainly_ been no call for her to wear the cursed thing after time had passed and the topic had cooled off. The truth was, as ashamed as she was to admit it, she had grown tired of waiting and hiding and forced herself to broach the topic, going to the trouble of putting on the suit just to stop herself from backing out and locking up the moment Jasmine's face was on the screen. After years of hiding her kinks from Jasmine, actually being able to talk about them with her had been liberating, and after weeks of privately hoping that interest had taken root and that Jasmine would bring the topic up herself, her seemingly limitless patience had finally caved in.

She hadn't known what she planned to say, but fortunately, Jasmine had _noticed_. She'd looked at Erika, hard, and there had been more in that shy brown gaze than curiosity or confusion. The blush in her cheeks, the tremor in her voice... there had been Erika's answer, handed to her on a plate before she had even asked a question. Her reactions when Erika had probed her for information had only confirmed it, but she hadn't pressed the issue further, withdrawing to a safer topic, leaving her friend with more to think about after they had signed off for the night.

Yes, wearing the catsuit had definitely been worth it, and the next time kink had come up, when _Jasmine_ had been the one to bring it up...

Well, Erika had needed some alone time afterward.

A shape glided through her peripheral vision, snapping Erika out of her vaguely embarrassed thoughts. Jasmine had almost walked past her, oblivious to her presence among the crowd, and Erika had darted out from the throng of people, ignoring the dirty looks of the reunited friends she had cut between, calling Jasmine's name and striding towards her with a bright smile and open arms that her friend hadn’t hesitated to run into.

“Hi.”

~ ~ ~

The rain hammered against the umbrella they shared on the way to Erika’s apartment, beating relentlessly against the neatly-paved streets and creating a maze of murky puddles in their path, but the girls didn't mind at all.

Still, shelter or no, they were still drenched by the time they reached the safety of the apartment building. Both of them were shivering as they stepped out of the elevator and onto the third floor, water dripping from every inch of their bodies and onto the hallway’s thin carpet, but the rain wasn’t enough to dampen their spirits tonight. The first glimmers of Jasmine’s more cheerful side were beginning to peek through the girl’s stress-enforced gloom like green shoots rising from barren earth, and even freezing and soaked to the skin, Erika couldn’t help but smile back at her.

Her apartment was warm and welcoming, and the moment her front door was shut Erika hastened into her bathroom and procured a pair of towels, mopping at her midnight locks with one as she returned to the living room and tossed the other to Jasmine's waiting hands. “I _swear_ it wasn’t that bad out there when I left," she grumbled, her face momentarily hidden behind a shifting wall of soggy cloth that robbed her of her characteristic dignity. "I apologize on behalf of Celadon’s weather.”

“D-don’t worry about it.” Scrubbing at her own sodden hair, Jasmine peeked out from beneath her towel with a smile as bright as any she’d ever shared, and a tiny thrill twisted in Erika’s heart. “The fewer people around tonight, the better,” the brunette went on, already back under the towel and completely oblivious to Erika’s reaction. “I keep expecting somebody to recognize me and challenge me to a battle...”

"They didn't, though." Erika patiently toweled her hair down as she spoke, her tone soft and reassuring. "Nobody knows you here, remember? The Johto League isn't very big in Kanto. No offense."

"Mm..." Jasmine didn't sound entirely convinced. She finished drying her hair in unsettled silence, as skittish as if some trainer were going to burst through Erika's apartment door at any moment, her dark eyes anxiously darting about the room, looking to the door, the window, the walls...

Anywhere but Erika.

The dark-haired girl could have slapped herself. _Of course she isn't worried about some random trainer popping up._

They had been best friends for years. They had been a constant comfort to one another. They had spent more than a few evenings discussing what they would do when they were finally able to spend time together offline, and now that Jasmine was finally here, she was nervous? "Jasmine?" she ventured, coaxing her with honeyed voice. "What are you _really_ worried about?"

Jasmine remained silent, her gaze still averted, but the pinkness in her cheeks said enough.

Momentarily lost for words herself, Erika fumbled for something, anything, to say. Sure, she'd been _hoping_ that Jasmine might take an interest in her little array of fetishes once the initial embarrassment of the catsuit incident had worn off, but she hadn't actually expected it to have this much of an effect on her. 

Or had it? Maybe she was jumping to conclusions here. Yes. Definitely jumping to conclusions.

The silence stretched on. Jasmine's gaze dropped. Erika had to say _something_ , and fast. "H-hey," she began, feigning nonchalance, ignoring the nervous fluttering in her stomach that threatened to bring her undone. "You didn't think I was going to jump on you and tie you up the moment you walked in the door, did you?"

Jasmine flushed a deeper shade of pink. "Well, n-no..."

The look in her wide brown eyes told Erika that Jasmine might not have minded if she had.

_Be still, my heart._

"Maybe later." She tried to keep her tone light and teasing, hoping that Jasmine didn't notice the breathless little hitch in her voice. She had _not_ been planning to talk about this so early in the vacation. "For now, you should go change out of those wet clothes. Your room is the last door on the left." She turned to point down the hallway extending from the living room, privately glad to hide her face from Jasmine. "I'll throw something on and get us something warm to drink. I'm not having you catch a cold on my watch."

"Okay..." Relieved, Jasmine reclaimed her suitcase and headed for the guest room, concealing her shy discomfort behind a grateful smile. "And, um... thank you. For having me. I really, really appreciate it."

Erika didn't take her eyes off of Jasmine's back until the guest room door had closed behind her.

~ ~ ~

The storm intensified as the night wore on, spraying the windows of Erika's apartment with an endlessly shifting curtain of rain, but Jasmine didn't mind one bit.

She sat, curled up in a plush red armchair, watching the blurry patterns wash over the glass in calm, contented silence. Outside the thin pane lay a world of cold, wet misery, near as grim a storm as the incident three years ago, but on this side of the window, with her pale blue nightdress and a mug of hot tea to keep her warm, it all seemed so far away. Otherworldly.

"How are you feeling?"

More than anything, more than the rain or the darkness or the warmth, it was Erika's company that comforted her, even if she could barely see the other girl amid the twisting shadows of the living room. She could feel Erika's presence, hear her breathing, and that was enough to make layers of stress melt away like nothing. "Better," she murmured, smiling into the dark.

"That's... good. I'm glad." Sitting in a matching armchair, dressed in a pink shirt and loose grey pants, hunched over a cup of tea of her own, Erika let her eyes slip closed, losing herself in the frantic beat of rain against glass. She hadn't been as exhausted as Jasmine, not by a long shot, but she had still needed this moment of peace.

She could have sat here like this tonight without Jasmine and lost herself in solitude, but it wouldn't have been the same. Even in silence, sharing the moment with her dear friend gave it a meaning it would otherwise have lacked. However chaotic their lives had been, tonight it all seemed to fade away beyond the falling rain.

The patter of droplets continued unabated. The silence did, too.

"You haven't fallen asleep, have you?" It was silly, but it was all that Erika could think of to say now that Jasmine was right here in the room with her. She had wanted this for months, harboured things she had desperately wanted to say to her in the flesh, not through a computer screen, but to speak them now would ruin the moment. That was too steep a price to pay.

Jasmine's soft giggle fluttered through the dark. "No, I'm awake. I barely feel tired at all." A moment's pause as she sipped her tea, chasing off the last remnants of the cold. "I barely remember what that feels like. The last few months have been crazy."

"I can imagine." Erika couldn't, really. What she had told Jasmine before was the truth - as leader of an quiet gym like Celadon's, her choice of grass typing thoroughly unspectacular, she didn't get as much attention from television networks and fan clubs as the likes of Misty or Blue. Sometimes even that was too much. 

"It's okay." She could hear Jasmine's smile even if she couldn't see it. "I can relax here. I... I know I said it before, but I really appreciate this, Erika. I don't know how much longer I could have kept at it without a break."

"You work too hard." It was a sentiment that Erika had shared with Jasmine many, many times. "I think the city expects too much from you. Caring full-time for such an important Pokemon, and taking care of your gym duties all alone..."

Jasmine made a noncommittal sound. It was true, and she knew it, but no matter how much stress was laid at her feet, she would never have a bad word to say about her city. That just wasn't who she was. "I'm okay now. I'm here. I don't need to worry about any of that for a week."

Erika pursed her lips. A week didn't seem like long enough to her, but that was all that Jasmine had been able to get, and even that she had had to fight for. "We'll make the most of it, trust me. Celadon can be a little confronting sometimes. It _is_ one of the biggest cities in Kanto, but it's a really nice place. Don't worry, I'll take good care of you."

A giggle from the other armchair. "That almost sounded sinister."

 _Do you want it to be?_ The words hung on the tip of Erika's tongue, but she hesitated to speak them aloud. Should she take the conversation down this path? She couldn't deny that she was eager to, and Jasmine... well, certain things were plainly on her mind as well, but the last thing Erika wanted to do now was push her. The poor, overworked girl had enough of that in her life.

Still, the phrase repeated itself over and over in her thoughts, begging to be spoken, and before she knew it, she had said it anyway.

There was no immediate answer from Jasmine, and for a long, horrible moment, Erika wondered if she had made a mistake after all. If she had pushed too far, allowed her hormones to claim a victory over rational thought for nothing.

"...Why? Are you going to break out the catsuit?"

Erika swallowed. Relief and desire made a heady mix, and she sipped at her tea to wet her suddenly very dry mouth, struggling to leash her excitement. It was more difficult than she imagined leashing Jasmine would be _no no no no! Stop thinking about that!_ Exasperated, she shook her head to chase away those lurid thoughts, trying to pull herself back together before Jasmine thought her silence odd. "It's a pain to put that thing on," she responded, keeping her tone light. She would banter a little, see where Jasmine tried to steer the conversation. "It is a full-body suit, after all. It is... very tight."

Jasmine was grateful that Erika couldn't see her little grin. "Full-body? Does that mean it... includes one of those hoods? W-without the eye holes?"

Erika almost choked on her drink. She didn't recall ever mentioning _those_. "My," she commented, lifting an eyebrow. "Somebody has been doing research."

"Ah..." Caught like a guilty thief, Jasmine gave a nervous little chuckle, her cheeks flushing a hot, rosy pink. "W-well, I... you... you made me curious, that's all. So I... might have read about some things..."

"I see it has made quite an impression on you." Clearly, Erika didn't have to hold back for Jasmine's sake after all. Maybe she could be a little more daring, she decided. "Besides... the hood isn't for me. It's for _you_."

The hiss of sharply drawn breath from across the room made her smile.

Blushing even more fiercely now, feeling dirty for even letting any of it cross her mind, Jasmine paused to gather her runaway thoughts, though it felt like trying to lasso a swarm of insects. "Um... Erika?" She didn't know how to ask this, but the question had to be answered, or she was going to go crazy. "Are we... are we kidding around here... or...?"

"I'm not joking." Bluntness, Erika determined, was the best approach now. There was no point dancing around it any further. "But this is your vacation, Jasmine. I didn't ask you here to tie you up, I did it because I want you to have fun. To relax for once. So... if we were to explore that..." She swallowed, again. Was she really talking about this to Jasmine's face? Well, to her silhouette, but it made little difference. She could imagine the expressions crossing Jasmine's face right now, even if she couldn't see them. "It would be completely up to you. I get the impression you're interested, but there's no pressure here. I mean it."

Hesitation, again. A pause of seconds that seemed minutes. Jasmine mulled it over, as she felt she must, but she already knew her answer.

"I'd like to."


	3. Eye of the Storm

Erika's bedroom was windowless and well-lit, a world apart from the darkened living room, and the moment she closed the door behind her, the storm outside was completely forgotten.

"It... feels weird to be on this end." Standing awkwardly by the desk in the far corner of the room, Jasmine peered at her reflection in the screen of Erika's laptop. Distracting herself, hiding her nerves beneath a fragile veneer of calm. "Like I'm visiting a movie set."

"I think I understand what you mean." Erika was glad that Jasmine's attention wasn't on her at the moment. She could do without the other girl seeing her nervous fidgeting when she was trying to project an aura of confidence and calm. This was so much easier in the gym. "So... do you want to tell me what sort of things you... researched? When you were, um, researching?"

"Uh..." There went Jasmine's hastily-constructed facade of composure, crumbling under the slightest strain. "W-well... r-restraint. Bondage," she clarified, a needless addition, but her scandalized blush as she said it was more than worth Erika's attention. "Things like... rope... and, um... gags..."

"And hoods?" Erika prodded as gently as she could. "It sounds like you went beyond the things we talked about back then."

Jasmine nodded slowly, nervously, as if she might flit away like a frightened Buneary at any moment. "Y-yeah. I did. I... I got interested. In things. I just..." She hesitated, clearly uncomfortable, guilt shading her face as she lowered her gaze. Erika didn't miss the flicker of shame in her eyes. "I liked it. I wanted to know how it felt." She swallowed. "That's... messed up, isn't it?"

"Maybe the girl with the latex catsuit and the box full of rope under her bed isn't the best person to ask." Erika gave her a playful grin, but when Jasmine didn't reciprocate, it slipped from her face in an instant. "There's nothing wrong with you, Jasmine," she tried again, her more natural serious self shining through. "Many people feel the same way, all over the world. That's why you were able to find things about it online, right? Because like-minded people put it there?"

Jasmine didn't answer, but her troubled frown receded a fraction.

"This isn't a gym." She smiled softly as she approached, and Jasmine didn't shy away, even when she reached out to take her hand and give it a reassuring squeeze. Her own heart was thundering in her chest, but she forced herself to ignore the rampant fluttering for Jasmine's sake. "Nobody's watching. Nobody's judging. Nobody even knows you're in the city. So..." Her expression shifted, fiendish coyness coming to the fore. "If you want to climb up on the bed and put your hands behind your back for me, that's nobody's business but yours and mine. Okay?"

That adorable pink flush flooded Jasmine's pale cheeks again. Her eyes darted to the bed, then back to Erika, shy and furtive. "You're sure...?"

Erika's serious gaze held hers. "Climb on up and see what happens."

She must have been doing something right, because Jasmine's breath hitched as if she had been struck, in just the way that Erika had hoped it would. The little brunette bit her lip, hesitating, as if she were waiting for somebody to jump out and scold her that _no, this was not allowed_. 

Of course, no-one did. She was alone in this room with Erika and her own desires, and in the end, her wants proved stronger than her reservations. A squirming tingle of excitement spreading through her body, she crawled on top of Erika's bed, hands and knees sinking into the soft red covers, coming to rest in a kneeling position and tentatively slipping her hands behind her back, wrists neatly crossed.

_Someone knows exactly what I want from her._ Surprised and pleased, Erika gave Jasmine a commandingly approving nod as she circled the bed, kneeling to dig out the large cardboard box she kept beneath it. As Jasmine watched in trepidation, the dark-haired girl dragged the box out into the open and untucked the flaps, laying bare the pile of neatly coiled ropes within, pausing a moment to select a bundle of thin, soft red rope before placing it on the bed right in front of Jasmine for her perusal. "This should do for right now," she noted, keeping her tone light, bridling her natural instinct to play the imperiously threatening dominant. 

Maybe next time.

Jasmine stared at the bundle of rope as if it might lash out and bite her, anxious but fascinated, and her gaze remained fixed on it as Erika picked it up again and slowly stalked her way back around the bed, losing sight of the neatly bunched cord just as the older girl began to unwind its crimson coils. She almost turned to follow it as Erika walked out of her field of view, curiously nervous, but _something_ kept her still, staring at the wall ahead of her like a good little submissive.

... _Submissive?_ She had seen the word a lot during her 'research', of course, but knowing what it meant and thinking of _herself_ in those terms were two very different things. Even while actively fantasizing about herself in some of the same situations she had viewed online she had never thought of herself as _Jasmine, the submissive_ , but now, kneeling on her obviously dominant friend's bed, patiently waiting to be tied up for her own gratification... it was difficult to say that she wasn't.

A part of her even enjoyed denying herself the right to turn her head, looking straight ahead without moving, hoping her discipline would please Erika even though the other girl had never asked for it.

"Good girl." Erika cooed, the mattress dipping as she climbed on top of the bed behind Jasmine's rigid form. It _definitely_ sounded as if she approved, and Jasmine resisted the urge to squirm in delight as her best friend's honeyed voice washed over her. "You're really getting into this, aren't you? Who'd have thought innocent little Jasmine had it in her?"

Blushing hotter than ever, Jasmine suppressed her urge to protest, snatching in a trembling breath as she felt Erika's hands on her arms, working the sleeves of her nightdress up to her elbows, admitting the gentle chill of the cold, wet night. She wondered if Erika could feel her trembling as the first touch of soft cord grazed her wrists, neatly lassoing them together, bundling one against the other in the care of the elegant young woman's patient fingers. Rope looped around her wrists again and again, knitting them together, then changing direction to wrap between her hands, keeping them pinned in their tidy little cross no matter how much she squirmed.

Twisting out of this was beyond her. She was trapped.

The thrill that sparked through her was half panic and half delight, the former steadily folding into the latter the longer she knelt like this, enjoying the simple sensation of being unable to move her arms. She was defenseless, and she liked it, the feeling of being unable to protect herself exciting her even though the only other person in the room was her closest, most trusted friend.

She had been right to pursue this. It felt good.

Watching her every twitch and turn, Erika couldn't help but feel proud of herself amid the swirl of _other_ feelings raging in her chest. There was no question that Jasmine was enjoying herself - the little smile on her lips that even the brunette had yet to notice was proof of that - and that meant that Erika had judged her correctly after all. Those years of wanting this had not been in vain.

In this moment, Jasmine was hers.

Of course, she could hardly voice those possessive thoughts, as strong as they turned in her heart. Those weren't thoughts for today, or even for tomorrow. Right now, all that she should be thinking of was Jasmine's enjoyment... but that didn't stop her from savoring the twinge of excitement that ran through her body as she rose from the bed and circled back around to collect her private box, her dear friend an enchanting sight from any angle.

"Are you comfortable?" she ventured, picking up her box of rope and toys and carting the whole container back around the bed, placing it within easy reach as she slid back on the bed to join Jasmine. "It doesn't hurt?"

"No..." Jasmine fidgetted, her fingers seeking out the knots but finding them too cleverly out of reach. This was hardly Erika's first time, and the Celadon leader had been careful not to give Jasmine anything to pick at. "I mean, no, it doesn't hurt. It's... fine." She bit her lip. "I like it."

"Then you won't mind if I tie you up more?" Brandishing a second coil of identical rope, Erika patiently unfolded it in her lap, spreading it across her bent knees and smoothing out the kinks. Her dark eyes shone with happiness, unseen. "I'd like to do your upper body next, if you will let me. It'll be tight, but it won't hurt."

"Okay." Jasmine didn't even hesitate, to the dark-haired girl's surprise, turning her head straight forward as if she were born to obey. Breathing deep, stiff breaths, the girl from Olivine straightened her body, her bound hands clutched into fists behind her back. "If you're ready, then..."

Oh, Erika had been ready for a very long time, though the tremble in her hands made her question herself for a moment, wondering at her own lack of composure behind her mask of serenity. Brushing that momentary distraction aside, she swept long waves of soft chestnut hair over Jasmine's shoulder, safely out of the way, and began to pass her doubled-over rope around Jasmine's body, snaring her thin upper arms tighter against her back. The cord dug into her chest right above her small breasts, pushing them out just a fraction, the sudden tightness around such a sensitive area making her gasp, then gasp again as Erika ran the rope beneath them as well.

Erika tried not to think about massaging them until they felt better. Really, she did.

The pressure of the rope only increased as she fastened it in knots behind Jasmine's back, bringing the front of her thin nightdress clinging fast to her modest chest, and the blush in both girls' cheeks suggested that neither of them had failed to notice. The twin points of her nipples pushed against the wispy fabric, and Erika began to wonder just when it had gotten so hot in here, and why Jasmine couldn't be one of those girls who wore a bra under her nightdress...

Heavens, she hoped the girl was wearing panties.

"It's really tight..." Jasmine didn't sound entirely unhappy with that, despite the way it exposed her. She was looking down at herself, fascinated, woring her shoulders from side to side as if she could shake the ropes loose. She couldn't; Erika had seen to that. "You... really know what you're doing with this."

"I should hope so." Erika kept her voice calm and mellow, a disguise for the lustful fire raging inside. "I have considerable experience with this. Not all of us spend our spare time cooped up in lighthouses, you know."

"I don't either!" Jasmine squirmed, as if she wanted to smack Erika with her hand, but the ropes held firm, granting her nothing. "W-well, not _all_ of it..."

Erika chuckled, placing a calming hand on her friend's narrow shoulder. "We all have our ways of relaxing. You have the lighthouse and Amphy, I have a catsuit and a box full of rope and a willing lady or three."

That startled Jasmine, a tiny flicker of jealousy flaring in her heart - not that she would admit it, even to herself. "You tie up three other girls? Regularly...?"

"Oh, no... just one." Almost eerily composed on the surface, Erika allowed herself a lazy smile. "For one of them, I am the submissive. For the third, well, we switch. It has been a very nice arrangement, but I think I would still prefer to do it with you, given the chance."

Jasmine nodded her understanding, but in truth her head was spinning. This was... a lot to take in. If Erika hadn't left that catsuit of hers lying around that one day, would she ever have known about this side of her best friend?

Or this side of herself?

Her thoughts were interrupted by Erika leaning over her shoulder, her calm face peering curiously at her. "Still comfy?"

Another nod, the brunette still blushing, still adjusting to the feel of rope on her skin and around her dainty chest.

"Atta girl." Erika extended a hand to cup Jasmine's cheek, lovingly stroking, before realizing what she was doing and hastily withdrawing, ready to laugh it off at the first sign of discontent. Jasmine, though, hadn't seemed to mind, her eyes half-lidded, her breathing slow, her lips still holding that little smile of hers. "Are you up for more? I could do more."

"...Yeah." Jasmine shifted herself backward, unfurling her slim legs beneath herself, offering them. The hem of her nightdress reached only her knees at the best of times, and the way she awkwardly slid herself around sent it slipping back up her thighs, bunching around them just short of revealing something embarrassing. 

Erika's breath hitched. Why was she doing this to herself?

Crawling forward, more rope in her trembling hands, she took hold of Jasmine's ankles and pushed them together, then after a moment's consideration crossed one over the other instead, a move that caught Jasmine by surprise if the younger girl's soft gasp was anything to go by. This time her friend could actually see what she was doing, watching Erika's hands work in fascination as the dark-haired young woman expertly bound her ankles together, the realization of how difficult it would be even to hop across the floor with her feet bound like this slowly dawning on her. Erika was good. Fast, gentle and clever. Formidable.

That gave Jasmine a pleasant little shiver.

Erika gave her an almost apologetic smile as she finished, tucking the knots away just above her heels, leaving her to test her new restriction and scooting back across the bed out of her submissive's sight. The moment she was beyond Jasmine's field of vision she pressed a palm to her breast, drawing in a deep breath and suppressing the urge to fan herself cool, let alone a whole mass of deeper urges far more dangerous should she surrender to them.

"You're sure this is okay?" It still stunned Erika that Jasmine was actually tolerating this, let alone enjoying it, and the more insecure part of her hounded her with doubts, pricking at her with the sly suggestion that she had manipulated her friend into this. Even the look of contentment of the brunette's peaceful face was not enough to satisfy her second-guessing nature, the war of emotion raging in Erika's chest utterly at odds with her own serene countenance. She had never had any hesitation with binding a willing party before, but when it was Jasmine-

"Yes. I'm sure." Jasmine peered over her shoulder with a smile, her wrists and ankles still working against the ropes not from the desire to be free, but from the need to feel them conspiring against her body. Limiting her. "It feels good, Erika. You're really good at this." Her smile faltered then, a troubled flash flitting through her deep brown eyes. "Why? Are you... not enjoying yourself?"

Erika could have laughed, sweet relief washing away her concerns. "I am, don't worry. I'm just happy that you are enjoying this as much as I am." Adjusting strands of raven hair behind her ear, she reached out to pat Jasmine's shoulder, a gesture that the younger girl would probably think of as sisterly. "I was worried, you know? That you'd be uncomfortable, that you'd think I was weird after all..."

"If you're weird, I'm weird." As quiet and reserved as shy Jasmine normally was, it was strange to see her with such a broad, playful grin on her normally skittish face. It warmed Erika's heart... and made it beat just a little faster. "...Well, maybe I'm a _little_ weird," she went on, oblivious, twisting and turning against the ropes like a child giddily spinning in a field. "I guess not a lot of people would like this..."

Her expression shifted then, her eyes briefly shadowing as she glanced up at the door. Confirming that there was nobody standing there watching her. Judging her.

Erika's heart twisted in sympathy.

"It's okay, sweetie." Before she knew what she was doing, she was sliding her arms around Jasmine's narrow waist, drawing her back into a soft, warm, protective embrace. Holding her, shielding her, fending off the nagging feelings of being a freak that she knew all too well. She'd felt those dark emotions enough for herself - she would never let Jasmine suffer through them alone as she had. "It's just you and me. Jasmine and Erika. Nobody else even has the key to this place."

Jasmine's frown receded, but her smile did not return so easily.

"Come on. You're having fun, aren't you?" She purred the words into Jasmine's ear, her seductive tone half an accident, nestling against her best friend's back rather more closely than was seemly. Heavens, she was stretching the bounds of plausible deniability to their limit, but it was difficult to stop herself from digging the hole deeper. What had she been _thinking_ , imagining that she could control herself in the face of her longtime crush indulging in her dearest fetish?

Again, Jasmine showed no sign that she was uncomfortable with the close contact; if anything she seemed comforted, sagging into Erika's dainty yet still more filled-out chest with a shaky sigh. "I'm sorry," she whispered, her tired eyes slipping closed. "I am having fun, I promise. It just... takes some getting used to." Her head lolled to the side, the scent of her soft brown hair nudging against Erika's nose. "All of it. I mean... we haven't seen each other like this in years, and this is the first thing we do?"

"We had tea," Erika protested, though her heart wasn't really in it. "We talked some."

" _Almost_ the first thing," Jasmine amended, her bound arms occasionally squirming against Erika's front, leaving the dark-haired girl trying _very_ hard not to gasp or to squirm right back. "I always figured we'd go to a cafe, or to one of our gyms, or just sit at home talking the night away. Not... this."

Erika pouted, but beneath the deliberately exaggerated expression, she wasn't sure whether to be genuinely hurt or not. When one's favorite hobby revolved around tying up other people, one learned to accustom oneself to being looked down on. She concealed her discomfort with a smile, reminding herself of who she was dealing with. "Does that mean you don't want to be gagged, then?"

"I didn't say that..." Oblivious to Erika's worries, Jasmine peered eagerly over her shoulder, her dark eyes alight with interest. What had she done to deserve this girl? "You... can, if you want to," she added shyly, as if ashamed of her own enthusiasm, the rosy pink in her cheeks flaring up again.

That was all the encouragement Erika needed to reach back into her box and close her fingers around the red rubber ball nested within the coils of rope, leather straps trailing loose from the gag as she lifted it out and brought it around in front of Jasmine's face. "Okay then. Open wide..."

It was the smallest ballgag Erika owned, but it was still almost too large for Jasmine's mouth, the brunette's face twisting in faint discomfort as the ball was popped behind her teeth, stretching her lips open around its shiny bulk. Still, she didn't resist as the straps were taken behind her head and buckled in place, a contented little hum muffled but audible as she accustomed herself to the sphere's awkward presence inside her jaw.

She wondered if Jasmine could feel the thunder of Erika's heart against her chest.

Perhaps if Jasmine had not been so obviously enjoying herself in her new confines, Erika might have felt a little guilty for so blatantly indulging herself with her innocent friend's body. For planting the seed of kink in her head and watching it grow. That was what she did best, after all; she nurtured green shoots, encouraged them to life, and if sometimes she was rewarded with a beautiful flower, wasn't that her just reward?

Perhaps she had been a _little_ manipulative, but even were Jasmine able to speak right now, she couldn't imagine that the shy girl would be complaining. She wanted this. 

No, there was no reason Erika should feel guilty - if anybody regretted this tomorrow, it was surely going to be the Celadon leader herself. Tonight, she could hold Jasmine close and feel her squirm, listen to the sounds she made, observe the hot little blush in her cheeks and the way her nightdress clung to her body, and just enjoy having her best friend so near for the first time in years, but tomorrow when they were still just friends and nothing more, this was going to _sting_.

She released a soft sigh, relieved when Jasmine didn't seem to hear it. Tomorrow's feelings were tomorrow's problem, and it wasn't as if she hadn't been nursing a crush on her best friend before now anyway...

Still, she found herself drawing back from Jasmine almost unconsciously, gently lowering her helpless friend to her side on the bed, leaving her to kick and struggle and groan as she slid to the edge of the mattress and climbed back to her feet, circling back around the bed with a carefully practiced knowing look on her lovely face. If she kept a little physical distance between the two of them, her heart would thank her for it. "Enjoying yourself there?" she cooed, letting the smug superiority of the experienced mistress drip from her lips as her eyes traced the drool trickling from Jasmine's. "You can't get out, can you? No matter what you try."

Jasmine shook her head a fraction, cheeks searing pink against the deep red of Erika's pillowcase. She didn't look as if she minded one bit.

"I didn't think so." Okay, she amended, perhaps kicking herself into mistress mode hadn't been the _best_ way to cool herself down, but it was too late to back out now. "Why don't you keep trying anyway? Squirm all you want. I'll wait." The wicked smile that crept across her face was only half-staged. "I'm very patient, my dear Jasmine. I can keep watch over you _all night_ if I must."

_And if I have to wait all night to get my hand into my panties I might die,_ she mentally added, at least finding the grace to be ashamed of herself.

Rumpled sheets. A drool-damp pillow. The scent of her best friend's hair. Sleeping in this bed tonight was going to be hell, not least because she would be doing it alone.


	4. Sunshowers

Morning found the two of them at Erika's kitchen table, newly dressed and peacefully content, sunlight streaming into the room through the drying windows illuminating a pair of sleepy, shyly smiling faces.

They had slept separately once the ropes had fallen away, but their dreams had been of each other.

"I had fun last night." It was the first thing either of them had said of it, and there was a note of caution in Jasmine's voice as she peered at Erika over her a morsel of half-eaten fish, as if she were breaking a spell just by mentioning it. "That was... really okay, right?"

_Okay enough that I fucked myself to the memory twice before I could get any sleep last night._ Erika chose to spare Jasmine _that_ indecent tidbit, brushing dark hair out of her face with the back of her hand and offering a sunny smile. "We both had fun. How could it not be okay?"

Jasmine gave a little nod, but didn't seem as reassured as Erika had hoped, her eyes downcast as she nibbled at her breakfast. Well, that was partly just Jasmine being Jasmine, but after the joy she had exhibited last night her pensive expression no longer seemed to belong on her familiar face. She had retreated into her shell again, looking out at Erika from behind a wall of glass, and Erika tried not to be stung by her withdrawal, focusing herself on lifting her friend's spirits. She'd just met the real Jasmine, hidden beneath that painful shyness, and she had no intention of letting go of her that easily.

"We could do it again tonight, if you want?" She kept her tone casual, face neutral, but she did not miss the flash of excitement that flickered across Jasmine's features for an instant before caution came back to roost. "I have a morning at the Gym, but this afternoon I can show you around Celadon. You know, do the things _normal_ friends do." A little smile, an eyebrow lifted. "Then in the evening, we come back here and have dinner, and after that we make sure you can't do anything except what I tell you to."

Jasmine shivered in her seat, her misgivings wavering when pitted against her wants. It was obvious what she desired, and even if her head had not quite caught up to her heart on the matter, she gave a second tiny nod, an acceptance this time. Maybe it was easier for her when everybody she knew in her day-to-day life was a region away, their judgment distant. "...Okay."

A smile bloomed across Erika's face at her answer. "Trust me, you don't have to worry. Nobody's going to find out." She extended a hand across the table to grasp Jasmine's, peering into her fretful eyes. "This is between you and me. Nobody else will be coming up here all week. Our little secret, alright?"

That earned her a more emphatic nod, and the trust in Jasmine's eyes made Erika's heart soar.

~ ~ ~

The rest of the morning passed quietly, Jasmine spending her time alone in Erika's apartment while the Celadon gym leader attended her duties, her heart light and floaty as she peered out the apartment window to the busy street below.

It seemed as if the bus she'd taken last night had transported her to a different world. Olivine City was large by the standards of Johto, but Celadon was on an entirely different scale, a metropolis built up as well as out, a cluster of apartments and office buildings towering higher than even her beloved lighthouse. Even so, there were parks and squares and gardens, trees lining the streets and flowers growing from windowsills, hallmarks of a city as verdant as befitted nature-loving Erika.

It was, of course, more than merely the change of scenery that had put her into this strangely buoyant mood. The ropes were gone, the light furrows they'd left in her skin faded away, but she could almost feel their soft strictness still wrapped against her skin, confining her, embracing her, just as snug and comforting as she had imagined it would be from the pictures she'd so closely perused. It really, _really_ wasn't like her to look at porn, let alone to want what was happening in it to happen to her as well, but _something_ about the pictures she'd seen had spoken to her in a primal level she barely understood, coaxing her deeper until she was reading about things Erika had never even hinted at, a blush on her cheeks but fascination in her eyes.

Was it because Erika had been the one to introduce her to it? The image of her best friend dressed in a figure-hugging catsuit was burned into her mind, resurfacing more often than she would ever have admitted. If it had been some girl she'd never met dressed like that, or a guy, would she have had the same reaction? The same need to know more?

She tried to distract herself with the view, with the television, with her laptop, but no matter how far she let her mind wander, it always came back to the box of toys in the next room and their gentle, warm, enigmatic owner.

When Erika finally returned to the apartment in the early afternoon, a 4 - 0 winning streak under the belt of her prim and proper obi, the two of them spent the rest of the daylight hours by each others' side, experiencing the bustling vastness of Celadon City from the famous department store to the fountain plaza to Erika's favorite cafe, complete with a cute young waitress who looked at Erika just a little too long and too knowingly to be a mere acquaintance. 

Dom? Sub? Before she realized she was doing it, Jasmine was studying the raven-haired girl a little more closely than was proper, heaping speculations on top of silly assumptions. It was ridiculous, of course, and she mentally chided herself as she caught herself, feeling more than a little silly at how quickly her mind had dived into the gutter.

Then she found the other girl staring at her, analyzing her with dark, cold eyes, and Jasmine's doubts crumbled away. Dom. Definitely dom.

Jasmine barely said a word as the two of them chatted amiably, but she could definitely sense _something_ beneath the surface of their interactions, far deeper than it might seem at first. Despite Erika being the customer and this other girl - Kyla - being the waitress, Erika seemed almost deferential to her, her eyes dipping throughout their conversation, allowing her friend to lead and agreeing with almost everything that she said. By the time they left the cafe, Jasmine was certain that her hunch was right, and later that day Erika confirmed it when she asked, surprised and a little embarrassed that Jasmine had so easily figured it out.

Jasmine was proud of herself for being only a _little_ jealous.

~ ~ ~

By the time the two of them returned to Erika's apartment, last night's rain had made its grim return, drizzling down from slate grey clouds to wreath the city in a thin layer of ice cold water.

"I _swear_ the weather isn't always like this." Exasperated, wiping a sheen of moisture from her forehead, Erika set her shopping bag down on the counter that separated kitchen from living room and gave Jasmine an apologetic look, as if the rain in her city were entirely her fault. "It's positively unseasonable. Perhaps I should have vacationed in Olivine with you instead..."

"N-no, it's okay." Jasmine's beloved sundress was damp and clinging to her skin, the thin white fabric a little more transparent than was entirely comfortable, but she hid her discomfort behind a reassuring smile for Erika's sake as the other girl circled back into the living room. "It was... refreshing. I kind of needed it after..."

The rest of that sentence was lost to stunned silence as Erika's red obi fluttered to the floor.

Blithely uncaring, as if it were nothing, the dark-haired girl shrugged herself out of her sunny yellow kimono right there on the living room carpet, peeling the wet fabric away from her body to reveal the pale skin and white lace that lay beneath. Her bra was unflattering, pressing her bust down rather than lifting it up and covering up a good amount of skin right down to her midriff, but Jasmine still found her face flaming red as her best friend undressed in front of her, unable to look away but knowing that she should. "E- _Erika_!"

"Hmm...?" Her kimono unfurling around her as she took the elaborate garment down her arms, the waist falling open to show off her long, slim legs and the white silken panties hugging her hips. Folding the long garment loosely over an arm, she stood there in only her undergarments and her familiar hairband, tilting her head in puzzlement. "Is something wrong?"

"S-Shouldn't you be wearing more under there!?" Finally managing to tear her gaze away, Jasmine hid her face behind her fingers, waving her other hand in the direction of Erika's body. "Like, um... an under-robe, or something?"

Erika glanced down at herself. "Well, I suppose, but... it's such a bother to do that every day. I always wear a kimono to the gym, and it takes me long enough to get ready in the morning as it is, so..." She shrugged, nonchalant, not that Jasmine could see the gesture. "It's not like anybody gets a peek under there, so it doesn't really matter, right?"

" _I'm_ getting a peek under there!" Still hiding her blushing face behind a hand, her eyes squeezed shut for good measure, Jasmine nevertheless found herself fighting off a startling, shameful urge to peer between her fingers. "W-why are you getting undressed here?!"

"Is it a problem...?" Still perplexed, Erika lifted an eyebrow, unconsciously drawing her folded kimono in front of her lace-clad body. "We're both girls, aren't we?"

Feeling more than a little childish, Jasmine hesitated, but she still didn't find the nerve to show her face. It was true - Erika didn't have anything she didn't have, if one didn't consider the dark-haired girl's rather more impressive bust - but it was still scandalous to a young woman who never undressed outside of the privacy of her own bedroom, still shy around matters of sex. Wasn't she an adult, though? Wasn't it a little silly for her to keep acting like this? Should she be more embarrassed about Erika's actions, or her own?

"It's not as if I'm naked, anyway." Just as Jasmine finally plucked up the courage to shift her hand from her reddened face, Erika spread her arms wide, her kimono still draped over her left, revealing her body in all of its lingerie-clad glory. "You must have seen women in swimsuits a lot more revealing than this back in Olivine, right?"

Jasmine had, but she had always been far too shy to wear one so skimpy herself, nor had she ever looked at any other beach-goers as closely as she was now being subjected to. She'd seen plenty of pictures of girls in their underwear online during her research, of course, or wearing even less than that, but there was a _big_ difference between a picture of some girl she had never met and her best friend standing right in front of her, close enough to touch...

"Come on, now, don't stand there shivering in that wet dress."

Erika's voice snapped Jasmine out of it, and she belatedly realized that she had been _staring_ , gawking at the vision of lace and flesh like a teenage boy. Her cheeks flushing anew, she hastily averted her gaze, desperately hoping that Erika hadn't noticed. Sure, it was Erika's fault in the first place, strutting around like that, but Jasmine still wished she could crawl under her bed and hide, stricken with embarrassment.

Fortunately for her, Erika wasn't even looking, gliding across the living room in her underwear, no less elegant for her state of undress. "Look, I'll turn the heating on before you catch cold," the older girl murmured, and true to her word she attended the electronic panel on the wall, her graceful fingers tapping at the buttons until she hummed with satisfaction. "You can take that soaked thing off, I won't even look. I'll just get you something out of your suitcase so you don't have to go dripping water all over the bedroom, okay?"

_Dripping...?_ Glancing down, Jasmine discovered that water was indeed draining from the rain-soaked skirt of her sundress, pattering onto the meticulously clean carpet, and before she could think it through she was hurriedly drawing the garment up over her head, stripping damp cloth from damp skin, keenly aware of Erika's penchant for neatness. "S-sorry!" she blurted, eyes darting about in search of the closest safe harbor, locating the kitchen bench and scurrying over to deposit her drenched sundress into the sink where it could do no more damage. She hadn't even _noticed_ until Erika had pointed it out! Goodness, she could be careless sometimes...

It took her moments longer than it should have to realize that she was now down to her underwear herself.

Instinctively wrapping her slim arms around her diminutive chest, she looked up to find that Erika had mercifully darted into the guest room while her back was turned, but with nowhere to hide and nothing to shield herself with, Jasmine was forced to wait there in the kitchen in her white cotton panties and bra, vulnerable and self-conscious and awkward, her cheeks burning hot and pink. She would have hidden behind the sofa if she didn't think that Erika would laugh at her when she came back. Maybe the more mature Erika was right, maybe she shouldn't be embarrassed to be half-undressed in front of another girl, but she just didn't _do_ this. Erika was the one who wore skin-tight latex and played intimate bondage games with other women and, apparently, stripped off in full view of her best friend without a second thought. Jasmine had never shown another person this much of her body before, and she didn't really want to be doing it now.

Thankfully, when Erika did return she pointedly averted her eyes from Jasmine as she handed her the white jacket and powder-blue dress she had taken from Jasmine's suitcase, the lively orange bow sewn into the bodice of the latter never seeming more childish than it had right now. "I always did like this one on you," Erika murmured as she stepped away, politely clamping a hand over her eyes for good measure. "It's cute."

Jasmine liked the dress, too - the ribbon had the appreciated side-effect of concealing her lacking chest behind a brightly-colored distraction - and she was quick to pull the warmer garment over her head, sighing in satisfaction as it fell over her quickly drying skin. Erika was still in her underthings, she didn't fail to notice, but she tried not to stare, barely understanding why she even had the urge to look. 

It didn't help that the dark-haired girl was practically showing herself off. The latex episode aside, Jasmine had only really seen her friend wearing kimonos or similarly modest clothing that understated her bust, and being suddenly presented with her friend's rather ample breasts stung for a girl who had always privately thought of her small chest as... inadequate. She was sensitive about her body, and Erika's was a thing of beauty, a work of art...

She shook her head to clear away those thoughts, grateful that Erika had once again found somewhere else to look. Jealousy. Yes, it was definitely jealousy that made her want to gawk at her best friend's shapely, lingerie-clad body. Just jealousy. Nothing else.

Wasn't it?

~ ~ ~

Maybe stripping in front of Jasmine had been a little much.

As her friend pulled her jacket over her narrow shoulders, tugging it closed around herself protectively, Erika tried not to outwardly show how much fun she was having. Getting Jasmine out of that wet dress hadn't been a part of the plan, and she felt a little guilty for stealing a peek as she stripped out of it right there in front of her, but undressing herself right in front of the timid brunette and stubbornly refusing to put some clothes on when she had the chance, now _that_ was entirely on purpose. It was just too enjoyable to fluster the younger girl, and it was almost revenge for the previous evening for the feelings her little game with Jasmine had left fluttering in her belly all night.

It had also been quite instructive regarding Jasmine's interest in women.

If Jasmine was into girls, Erika was none the wiser even after their little bondage session last night, but the longing look in the Olivine girl's eyes just now as she had stared at Erika's willingly offered body had told the tale, whether she had realized it or not. Whether she even knew she was attracted to women or not.

It was possible that she was simply seeing what she wanted to see, Erika knew, but even now the poor girl was trying not to dart glances in her direction, and she imagined the posture she was holding, leaning over the counter with her panty-clad ass protruding across the kitchen, wasn't helping the situation. It was too much fun to tease the poor, reticent thing, but it was all to a purpose in the end; the more she learned about her dear friend's feelings, the less likely Erika was to make a friendship-ending blunder when her own emotions finally got the better of her.

Of course, that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy herself in the process.

"Why don't I make us some dinner?" She didn't fail to notice that Jasmine still wasn't directly looking at her. Perhaps she should put on some clothes after all, adorable as her reactions were. "It's been a long day, and I know I could use a hot meal. You're hungry, right?"

Her face irresistibly pink, Jasmine looked up at Erika, trying _very_ hard to look her in the eye and not anywhere else. "Um, yes, please." An uncomfortable pause. "Um, Erika...?"

"I'm going to go put something on." Keenly aware of what Jasmine had been about to say, Erika remove herself from the counter and sidled towards her room, a definite sway to her hips for the younger girl's benefit. She'd amused herself enough at her friend's expense for now; there was no point in over-doing it. "You should definitely eat something while you can. Once I bring the rope out, you won't have a chance for a while."

The last thing she saw before she closed her bedroom door was a flicker of nervous anticipation flitting across Jasmine's face.

~ ~ ~

One elegant red dress and one pleasantly warm, only slightly awkward meal later, the two of them had found their way to the comfort of Erika's sofa, the sound of falling rain still beating down on windows hidden away behind blinds and curtains.

Jasmine's head rested in Erika's lap, her slender body laid across the soft red cushions, tightly bound in matching rope from her ankles to her thighs to her chest.

Her arms neatly tied together behind her back, her light brown tresses draped across Erika's thighs, the girl from Olivine was the picture of vulnerability, helpless to defend herself, but in the clutches of none other than her beloved best friend, a warm hand tenderly stroking her head and a fond smile shining down on her, Jasmine felt safer than anywhere else in the world. Stress melted from her narrow shoulders as she embraced her powerlessness, calm washing over her, all slipping from her peaceful mind but Erika's warmth and the sofa's softness and the tightness of the ropes snarled around her chest and limbs.

"Anything you want to say before I gag you?" Erika's voice floated down to her, a fond smile on the older girl's face. Gone was the flirt who had flaunted herself in her lingerie; the gentle, tranquil girl she had always known had returned, patient and kind and modest, the face that she showed the world as the nature-loving princess of the Celadon Gym... though her subordinate trainers might have fainted if they knew that their leader spent her free time tying up her friends.

Jasmine hesitated, then nodded. There was _one_ thing she'd been wanting to ask, something they'd never talked about even on that first night, when Erika had laid her cards on the table. "How did you... find out that you were into this?"

If Erika hadn't planted the idea in her head, Jasmine doubted that she would ever have thought about it more than fleetingly. Certainly not to the point of looking up what she could still barely admit to herself were borderline porn sites... but where had _Erika_ learned about this stuff? Surely not from browsing the same sites, unprompted...

A sad smile flitted across Erika's face. "You remember the girl who served us in the cafe? Kyla?"

Jasmine nodded, curiosity and jealousy flaring as one, intertwined.

"Well... she was my girlfriend, back in high school." Erika's fingers found Jasmine's hair, stroking gently against her scalp, all without the dark-haired girl realizing that she was doing it. Her dark eyes were lost in thought, wandering through her memories. "My first girlfriend. I don't know where _she_ got the idea, but one day she decided that she wanted to tie me up, and I agreed, and... I found a taste for it." 

A fond smile slipped across her lips, though there was still an edge of melancholy to it that made Jasmine's heart ache. "Almost every day after that she had me in ropes. She bound me so often that I learned a lot of the tricks just by letting her do as she wished with me. Even after we... separated, we remained friends, and we still played our little games from time to time. We still do. It's a piece of myself I'm not ready to let go of, even if we will never be in love like that again."

Reminiscence lapsed into silence. Jasmine grasped for something to say, something to comfort her, but found nothing in the void, romance simply beyond her experience. She'd never been as intimate as that with anyone, far too shy for relationships; the closest she had ever been with anyone was Erika herself, and that was hardly romantic...

A nameless twinge ran through her heart at the thought, but she was afforded no time to dwell on it.

Something soft and silken pushed against her lips, and it took her a moment for her wandering mind to determine that it was certainly not a ball gag this time. No, this was cloth, something smooth and pale green and edged with lace, and the sudden comprehension that her lips were brushing against a pair of panties made her cheeks heat anew, her brown gaze darting to Erika's, full of questions.

"Would you prefer the ones I'm wearing?" Erika's eyes sparkled with mischief as she prodded at Jasmine's mouth with the silky underwear, demanding entrance. They were definitely not Jasmine's panties, which meant... "Or maybe we could use yours instead? I'd have to untie your legs to get them off you, but I can make it work..."

Jasmine hesitated, her lips clamped tight. She wanted to gag her with her _underwear_? That was just... demeaning, revolting. The panties being pushed up against her lips were clean, but even so, she knew where they'd been, and for Erika to want to put them in Jasmine's _mouth_...

It was degrading, undeniably sexual, and she knew that it should be more than just a tiny part of her that felt disgusted that her friend would want to do that to her... but to her own puzzlement, she was actually _considering_ opening her mouth and accepting Erika's panties, even if she didn't understand why the idea gave her a strange little thrill-

"You don't want to?" Erika peered down at her in concern, and though she didn't withdraw her balled-up underwear entirely, she lifted it away from Jasmine's lips so that she could speak without fear. "I'm... sorry if that was a little much. It's something Kyla used to do to me all the time, so I..."

"No... it's okay." Attempting reassurance with a soft little smile, Jasmine lifted her head from Erika's lap, even this little movement clumsy and awkward without the use of her arms. "I don't mind. I just... didn't expect..."

She didn't mind? Erika had been in two minds about this from the start, but if Jasmine was actually willing to accept something so intimate without complaint... was she really just that submissive? Or...?

There was that pesky hope again, gnawing at her composure, teasing her heart to fluttering. She couldn't... could she? 

_Sure. Nothing says 'I have hidden feelings for you' like letting you put your panties in her mouth._ A part of her wanted to get it over with and ask how Jasmine really felt, to confess the truth of her feelings right this instant, but she could hardly call this the right moment. Not when she had the poor girl at such a disadvantage.

Not when Erika wasn't ready.

Instead, she smiled and daintily pushed her undergarments into Jasmine's willing mouth, stuffing the lacy fabric inside with her fingers until not a scrap remained outside of her lips, binding them inside with an old stocking stretched and tied around her blushing head. 

Her new gag muffled her more than the ball gag had, barely a sound escaping the bundle of silky cloth as she tried in vain to speak, but she didn't seem to mind it at all, her head nestling back against Erika's thigh as she tried anew to free herself. She wouldn't, of course, even had she wanted to; Erika's knots were simply too many and too clever for Jasmine to squirm out of, neatly confining her in a bundle, and she would have no choice but to remain in her best friend's lap for the foreseeable future, listening to the rain spraying against the windows.

Neither of them had a problem with that.


	5. Cloudy Horizon

The next day was nowhere near as awkward as it should have been for a girl who had spent half of the last night with her mouth stuffed with her best friend's underwear.

The Celadon Gym was closed on weekends, and Erika spent the entirety of her day off with Jasmine, taking a walk through the business district, visiting her favorite park, spending time together back at the apartment a world away from the busy streets below. This time, Erika's box of toys remained in plain sight the entire day, sitting on the couch they'd shared last night, thin red coils poking through the cardboard flaps eternally reminding them of what had passed the previous night.

It wasn't until after midday that they spoke of it, and then only to confirm that they would play again this evening.

Still, the memories they had made last night continued to play in Jasmine's head, over and over, keeping her in a pleasant, calm mood all day long. The way the ropes had felt against her body. The way Erika had gazed down at her, comforting and accepting.

The devious glint in her eyes as she offered Jasmine her panties.

She hadn't been able to get that out of her head. After everything they'd talked about, done together, that had been the tipping point, the moment that things had become ever so slightly sexual between them... and she hadn't minded. She'd accepted it just like that, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Perhaps she should have seen it earlier that day, when Erika had stripped in front of her, but it had taken her until now to understand. It was... likely that Erika had feelings for her, and when viewed through that lens, everything that had happened since the moment she had seen that latex catsuit on her best friend's wardrobe door made perfect sense.

Jasmine had tried to deny it to herself, but her own feelings were breaking out of their shell, whether she liked it or not. 

Maybe it was just the sudden rush of emotion of being so close to Erika after so long chatting through a screen, or the endorphins released by their nightly game, or maybe they had been there all along, hiding away inside of her, known to her heart but not her head. Either way, they were here now, feelings somewhere between lust and love, a tangle of wants and wishes she could barely begin to understand.

She'd never really had the courage to pursue love or even sex before. She had always been the shy girl, nervous around strangers, even visitors to her gym, and there had been few people she had been close to in her life outside of her family. Romance was something she barely thought about, and it had simply never occurred to her that she might have had an interest in women until now. Until this visit.

Now that she knew, there was no unknowing it. It made Jasmine see Erika in a different light, a more rose-tinted one, and every time she looked at her dearest friend, she wondered if this was how Erika had always seen her.

If, of course, Erika actually felt that way about her at all.

That particular question mark hanging over the matter was the reason Jasmine hadn't said a word about her feelings to Erika, even after spending the entire day in her ever-pleasant company. If she was wrong about this, wrong about her, then she could damage their friendship. She knew that Erika liked women, but that didn't mean that she liked _her_. Sure it _seemed_ that way, that her best friend had been shamelessly flirting with her, but what did _she_ know about flirting? Maybe she was seeing signals where there were none. Maybe Erika just saw nothing unusual with getting undressed in front of Jasmine, with tying her up and shoving panties in her mouth...

By the end of the day, Jasmine's head was in such a mess that she was considering blurting out how she felt just to end the torture when Erika asked the question she had never really expected.

"Jasmine, how do you feel about me?"

~ ~ ~

Asking the question had taken more courage than Erika thought she had.

She had tried to be casual about it, though her choice of a lavender kimono and red hakama had made it seem a little too formal. A victim of her own overly traditional tastes, she supposed. She felt a little silly sitting here in an armchair, across from Jasmine and her plain yellow dress, but it was too late to go and change now. She'd asked the question, and now she would have to confront the answer.

The flush in Jasmine's pale cheeks was the first sign of that answer.

"...Um." Her dark eyes dropped to her lap, her dainty hands fidgeting in her lap. There was the shy Jasmine she'd met at the League conference years ago, the girl too nervous to mumble more than a few soft words at a time. She'd been getting better at it since then, especially around Erika, but asking a question like _that_ had sent her sliding back into her shell, and Erika knew that she should have seen it coming. "I... like you?"

Erika tried not to show her frustration. That could mean anything. "...As a friend?" she ventured, a faint tremble in her voice that she hoped Jasmine didn't detect. Her heart felt like it was twisting around itself.

Jasmine nodded, silently biting her lip.

A sharp ache pierced Erika's heart... but no, that, too was vague. Her nerves were nearly frayed through, but it was her own fault for dancing around the subject like this, she supposed, inviting the ambiguous when she could and should have been more direct. She had started this, and now she must finish it, whatever it ultimately cost her.

Jasmine still wasn't looking at her, contemplating her knotted fingers. Did she know? Had she guessed where this line of questioning was going? Erika hadn't exactly been subtle up until now, she admitted to herself. Wetting suddenly dry lips with her tongue, she leaned forward, steeling herself for an answer she fully expected to hurt. 

"Just as a friend?"

Silence. 

Jasmine did not look up.

Erika's heart sank like a stone.

Four hands squirmed in two laps.

Lips unpursed, drawing in a deep breath.

"...no."

Hope ignited.

"No?"

Jasmine shook her head ever-so-slightly, as if embarrassed by the tiny motion, lifting her face to meet Erika's, anxious determination on her familiar features. She was afraid, but she would not run. "No. Not... not just as a friend." She swallowed, eyes dipping, seeming to shrink into the armchair. "I... I think."

Dread and joy clashed in Erika's chest, leaving only numbness in their wake. "You think...?"

"I don't know." Her voice a shadow of a whisper, Jasmine curled her knees towards her chest, wrapping her arms around her shins in a defense against the world. "I feel... something. I just don't... know." Her eyes brimmed with helplessness as she looked back up at her closest friend, the Deerling in the headlights once again. "I'm sorry. I'm not used to this."

"Don't apologize." Now that the initial shock had worn off, the brilliant flare of hope in Erika's heart had softened, but it still outshone despair, and the calm, gentle smile on her face was completely genuine. "I know it can't be easy for you. I do want you to know, however, that I do have feelings for you, Jasmine. I have for... a long time."

The world felt lighter with that weight off of her shoulders, come what may.

"Just know what we'll always be friends, okay?" Reassuring, serene, she attempted to coax the shy brunette back out of the shell she had forged for herself, offering her comfort from the trials of her own inexperienced heart. "I'm a big girl. I can handle a few dented feelings if I have to."

Jasmine nodded, offering a tiny smile in return, but she said nothing, hunkering down in the safety of her silence.

A subject change was required, Erika sensed. Jasmine needed time to think, and honestly, so did she. "Do you still want me to... you know, tonight?" she prodded, far more concerned about her friend's wants than her own amusement. "We can take a raincheck..."

For a long moment Jasmine remained silent, fingers flitting together in her lap, but when she did speak, it wasn't with the answer that Erika was expecting. 

"Could we... go harder tonight?"

Caught off-guard by the request, Erika blinked, uncertain how to respond. The little flicker of desire the question stirred within her went studiously ignored. "Harder...?"

A nervous, halting nod. "Yeah."

More ambiguity. That could have meant anything, but Erika could read the mood enough to save the questions for later. She could only hope that nothing she had said had spurred the request. 

"...Okay. Harder, then."

~ ~ ~

_I need some milk from the store on the corner. You are going to go there and get it for me, and when you come back, you will place it in the refrigerator, you will strip down to your underwear, and you will kneel in the middle of the living room and wait for me._

The words were carved into Jasmine's mind, haunting her ears as she stepped back into the silent apartment, Erika's keys in one hand and the requested milk gripped tight in the other. Her best friend was nowhere in sight, the kitchen and living room empty and eerily still, but her bedroom door was closed, light shining from beneath the crack, leaving little doubt where Erika was hiding.

Hesitantly padding across the living room to the kitchen, Jasmine opened the refrigerator and slipped the milk inside next to the carton already sitting within. Of course, Erika hadn't actually needed more. What she had needed was time to get ready, time for Jasmine to dwell on what was about to happen, and while they had talked about it in advance it still carried the thrill of the unknown for a girl still terribly inexperienced at this. It hadn't been cold on the walk home, but she had shivered.

The living room awaited, expectant.

Taking a deep, trembling breath, Jasmine stepped out of the kitchen, her heart thudding in her chest as she approached the agreed-upon spot. The apartment was spacious, leaving plenty of room between sofa and armchairs for her to stand, the cardboard box containing Erika's toys left sitting on the cushions, the lid folded in to conceal the contents. The curtains were closed over the clear, starry sky, leaving her isolated, trapped, but it was a feeling that she quite liked.

It took her mind off of other things.

She had agreed to the idea of undressing without hesitation, but still her fingers shook as she drew her dress over her head, as she kicked her sandals off, as she unfastened her hair from her familiar decorations and let her trademark spikes fall down around her serious face. The latter wasn't a command, just something that felt right to her, and as she knelt down on the carpet in her simple white panties and bra she allowed herself to sink into the feeling of vulnerability she had come to enjoy.

She barely even noticed that she had slipped her hands behind her back without being told until the bedroom door finally clicked and she found herself fighting the instinct to cover her sparing chest.

From her place on her knees, the first thing she saw as Erika's door swung open was the stretching arch of a foot in a tyrannically high-heeled boot. Black leather encased a shapely leg from knee to straining toe, the ludicrous spike beneath forcing her heel inches from the floor, and it was soon joined by a twin just as strict and cruel, shining in the living room light as their owner stepped out to play. 

Above the knee was the territory of chocolate brown latex, Jasmine discovered with an indrawn breath as sharp as a knife, skin-tight rubber aglow with reflected light as it clung to thigh and hip and stomach and bust, embracing Erika's body as tightly as her skin. It had made her stare over the webcam, but in person it nearly stopped Jasmine's heart, the light shifting across the shamelessly snug latex drawing her eye no matter how hard she tried to glance away. The catsuit gripped Erika from her boots to her wrists and her neck, showing not an inch of skin beyond her head and her elegant hands, revealing nothing yet revealing everything.

She looked as natural in latex as she did her traditional kimono, but her ruby-red lips were curved into a smile none-too-serene as she approached Jasmine with the imperious eyes of a queen and the posture of a general. She was Erika, but she was not - she was the girl Jasmine had known for years, yet she was the woman only two other people had ever seen, the true dominant that lurked beneath the calm, kind gym leader of Celadon.

Jasmine feared that she might melt in the face of her.

She knew she should have felt self-conscious kneeling here in just her underwear, as she had the previous day in the kitchen, but excitement and apprehension had a monopoly on her thoughts right now, her whole body seeming to tingle as Erika looked her over with something that appeared dangerously like disdain. That, too, they had discussed, but it still made Jasmine feel as small as a thumbnail, a mouse before a wolf, helpless before the first restraint touched her skin.

There was something in Erika's hand, but Jasmine didn't notice it until it was dangled before her, the metal ring at the front of the sturdy leather collar glinting faintly in the gentle light.

"Put it on," her mistress commanded, and Jasmine smiled as her shaking fingers closed around it.

It fit snugly around her throat, not enough to choke her but enough that she would not forget its presence nor its meaning, the ring swinging gently beneath her chin as she let her brunette locks fall down over the buckle, concealing it from view. She would not need it for some time.

~ ~ ~

Harder, Jasmine had said.

The shy brunette was not the only one who was nervous about where this was going, but Erika masked her anxieties with the cold competence of the dominant persona she normally reserved for certain other friends, as difficult as it was to be composed when Jasmine was kneeling on her living room floor in nothing but her underwear and a leather collar.

Latex always made her feel different. Powerful. Sexual. It had been expensive, difficult to acquire when she was so well known throughout Kanto, but it was so very worth it just to see the look on Jasmine's face. To feel it stretched over her skin, tight and lusting for her every curve.

"You wanted _harder _, I believe." She circled slowly around her prey, fingers caressing the younger girl's narrow shoulder and the strap of her flimsy bra, teasing the edge of her collared neck. "More, right? More than simply being bound and gagged."__

__Jasmine could only nod in silent, guilty agreement._ _

__"Hm." Chin lifted, back straight, Erika situated herself in front of her willing submissive, her every step careful and measured in her wickedly arching boots. Heavens, if only the public saw her now. "You have been at my mercy twice now, but you've never come to feel what that means, have you?"_ _

__A tiny shake of a lowered head._ _

__Red lips pursed to a sharp little line. Iron in her dark eyes, Erika cupped Jasmine's chin and lifted the brunette's anxious face to meet her own, cold displeasure on a face that had always been warm. "Speak."_ _

__"N-no..." There was a tiny catch in Jasmine's whispered answer; she clearly wanted to look away, but Erika refused to let her, keeping a grip on her chin and trapping her head in place._ _

__"No... what?"_ _

__Confusion turned to embarrassment, Jasmine's cheeks flushing pinker than ever as she realized what Erika wanted her to say. What _she_ wanted to say. "No... M-Mistress...?"_ _

__"Much better." There was nothing feigned about Erika's delight as she traced her fingers down Jasmine's soft cheek, cupping her face, allowing the lust she felt within to creep into her eyes for her adorable submissive to witness. "And do you want to see?"_ _

__A timid nod, an awkward pause. "Y-yes... Mistress."_ _

__Erika's lips folded into a scarlet smirk at that answer, feeling her most dominant instincts seeping to the fore, subverting the protective urges she had always felt towards her dear, shy. friend. Planting a warm kiss on Jasmine's forehead that made the younger girl shiver, she released her and rose to her full height, her uncomfortable boots carrying her to the sofa where her trusty box awaited. "That's too bad," she murmured, opening the flaps and delving beneath the pile of rope and chains for what she knew was lurking deep beneath. "Because tonight, you won't be seeing much of anything at all."_ _

__Her fingers found the shiny black smoothness of her latex hood and grasped it, drawing it out into the view of her curious sub, holding it up triumphantly for her to take in. Erika was very well acquainted with the hood's lightless, claustrophobic interior, but tonight she would view it from the outside as her Jasmine twisted and squirmed and sucked in air through the two little nose holes, blind and helpless, completely in her power._ _

__By the wanting look on her face, Jasmine might have been nervous and frightened of the prospect, but she was no less eager than her latex-clad mistress._ _


	6. Deluge

The hood clung tight to Jasmine's face, blotting out all light behind a glossy wall of smooth black latex, plastering her light brown hair against her head as it wrapped her in warm, intimate, impenetrable darkness. 

She could breathe, at least, but that felt like _all_ she could do. Breathe, sucking in air through the two tiny holes allowed to her elfin nose, the sounds of her own indrawn breaths almost alien to her latex-covered ears. Even had there been a hole for her mouth in the opaque sheath covering her head, the ball gag strapped inside her jaw would have made breathing through it an impossible task. 

She couldn't see, couldn't speak, her senses dulled by Erika's toys, and she liked it.

Even if she hadn't, she was entirely dependent on her brand new Mistress to set her free should Jasmine give the signal that she wanted out. The hood was zipped tightly onto her head, and there was no way she could reach it with her hands snugly bound in leather cuffs, the restraints neatly chained together in the small of her back with a single metal link. Her legs were still folded under her, but now her ankles were crossed and bound once again, ensuring that there would be no hopping away for the girl from Johto even were she able to see where she was going. She was trapped, confined, and if what Erika had said just minutes ago had been the truth, this was just the beginning.

"Bend."

She could barely hear Erika's voice through her latex prison, but she had known that the order was coming. Tentatively, awkwardly, Jasmine leaned forward and touched her hooded forehead to the carpet, her rear rising into view as she abased herself before her mistress. Her simple white panties still protected her, but she felt _more_ than vulnerable now, as if she were asking, begging to be taken advantage of. It felt forbidden, made her feel dirty, but with her head encased in latex and her arms cuffed behind her back, she was helpless to resist. It didn't matter what she wanted.

...so it wasn't her fault, right?

"Good girl..." Erika cooed her approval, the _clomp_ of her dark-haired mistress's high-heeled boots still audible as she circled Jasmine's kneeling form, though her exact location eluded the younger girl within the clinging darkness of her hood. "You really are _very_ obedient, aren't you? You must _really_ want this."

Jasmine did. She had no idea _why_ she did, but she did. Perhaps that one online video she had watched through her parted fingers had had more of an effect on her than she was prepared to admit to herself, but when Erika had suggested this particular activity from a list she had produced, Jasmine had not been able to agree quickly enough.

The first swat of Erika's hand against her ass was playful, barely a smack at all, but it sent a warm, pleasant throb pulsing through her huddled body.

Her best friend was spanking her.

She had enthusiastically, if shyly, given her consent, but the sheer embarrassment was sharper than the sensation of being struck, and for a brief instant Jasmine panicked, sure that _someone somehow_ was watching her, judging her, and being unable to see only made the dread more intense. Only when she dimly heard Erika's gentle laugh through the layer of latex did she relax, the tension in her body easing, and a moment later Erika followed it up with a second smack, just a fraction harder, drawing a heavily muffled gasp from her prisoner.

Then a third, yet harder, and the impacts began to hurt.

She had asked Erika for more. Harder. Even as her ass began to sting from the repeated impact of Erika's palm Jasmine didn't regret it, but it was for the best that her dominant friend didn't know _why_ she had wanted it so badly. As a submissive she was intrigued by strict discipline, by tighter restraints and harsh punishments, but she hadn't felt ready for it yet, not after only a couple of evenings in Erika's ropes. 

The truth was that she was punishing herself. Every swift smack of her best friend's hand was in penance for the disappointment in her eyes when Jasmine had fumbled her answer to Erika's heartfelt confession. She had only been completely honest, too uncertain of her own feelings to commit to a yes or a no, but Erika's hurt had been double-edged, cutting her as surely as her would-be lover, and after everything Erika had done for her - inviting her here, taking care of her, guiding her step by step into this world of hers - it felt as if she were being ungrateful. 

She should have known how Erika felt about her. She should have given more thought to her best friend's feelings before letting things get this far. Before submitting to her like this, before playing a game that could so easily turn sexual.

She had asked to play harder tonight because it was what Erika wanted, and because it was what she felt she deserved.

The fact that she was _enjoying_ being spanked made her feel even more guilty, but it was easy to let the rhythm of hand against ass carry her away, her worries floating away as she gave herself over to the sensations. Erika was _definitely_ holding back, but it still hurt, still sank her into the calm void of submission, and she felt herself slowly relaxing, the darkness closing her in as her reddening ass burned and stung a little more with every smack.

Then, one particularly hard smack made Jasmine's bound body jerk forward with a gasping grunt.

The follow-up missed its mark, landing between right between the kneeling girl's legs.

A shrill squeal escaped the hood and gag, Jasmine's whole body stiffening in shock as Erika's hand hastily withdrew, blurting stammered apologies that the helpless girl could barely hear through the thin layer of latex stretched over her head. Pain throbbed outward from her smarting pussy, sharper and fiercer than anything she'd felt before, but it felt _good_ too, an edge of pleasure on the knife of pain, and when the hood was torn from her head and the gag hastily unbuckled and pulled from her mouth, she shook her head at Erika's mortified apologies, though her own face was red with embarrassment and more. "I-I'm okay. It's okay."

"I-I really didn't mean to do that." Practically falling over herself to apologize, Erika steadied Jasmine with a hand on her shoulder, worry plain on her face as she looked her helpless friend in the eye. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to touch you there..."

"It's... all right. R-really." And it was, Jasmine discovered as her head caught up to her racing heart. Erika had touched her, _there_ , even if it had been through the thin barrier of her panties, but it hadn't upset her. Maybe it should have, but it didn't.

To Jasmine's surprise, she hadn't minded at all. 

Maybe she had been caught up in the moment, maybe she had been too deep in her submissive head-space to object as she might have in her right mind, but even as the soft haze faded from her mind Jasmine found herself more excited by the intrusion than violated, and she fended off Erika's continued apologies with a shake of her head and a nervous little smile, politely denying her friend's attempts to untie her.

"I... kind of liked it."

The pesky thought had been nagging at her, begging to be spoken, but Jasmine didn't realize that her lips had actually formed the words until she saw the blush spreading across Erika's face, the shock in her dark eyes, the red ring her mouth formed as it dropped open.

"You... did?"

A silent nod was Jasmine's only reply, shyness taking root once again, her pale cheeks hot with shame as she dropped her eyes to bare legs still folded beneath her. She wondered if the little damp patch she could feel in her panties would dry before the time came for Erika to untie her ankles.

Erika swallowed before speaking, trying and failing to conceal her own nervousness. "Do you... want me to do it again?"

Hesitation, then another tiny nod.

"Say it."

"...Yes."

"You're sure?"

Jasmine forced herself to lift her head, two pairs of uncertain brown eyes finding each other. How were things moving this _fast_? "Please."

She could almost see the mental and emotional calculations running through Erika's head as she processed this, weighing her own feelings, weighing Jasmine's, weighing the implications of what she was asking. "If you want me to stop, just tell me," she said at last, making no move to put the gag back in Jasmine's mouth. "I won't do it so hard this time, but you might want to brace yourself."

Jasmine did, awkwardly lowering herself back into position, lifting her hips just a little to provide access to her crotch. Thinking about what she was doing would only leave her an embarrassed mess, so she didn't, closing off her thoughts and acting purely on instinct, touching her forehead to the carpet and waiting for Erika to do her worst.

The first slap against her pussy was feather-light from a shaking hand, barely a slap at all, but the stroke that followed it was solid, smacking against Jasmine's intimate flesh with enough force to make her hiss. She had known it was coming this time, asked for it herself, but it was still a shock to her system to be touched there, let alone hurt, and she fought down the primal instincts that demanded she make it stop, reminding herself that it was okay, that it was just Erika, that she wanted this.

Even if this was a hell of a lot more sexual than having Erika's panties shoved in her mouth.

 _Panties._ Jasmine froze in dreading realization, but if Erika had noticed the dampness of her underwear she made no comment about it, the latex-clad lady administering another swift slap to Jasmine's crotch that made the younger girl yelp from the sting. It hurt far more than the spanking had, a direct assault on her most vulnerable of places, but it was more than just pain, threads of pleasure teasing through the ache the blows left behind, and she loved it as much as she hated it, enjoying and resenting slap after slap until she finally cried out and crossed her fingers behind her back.

"Enough?" The signal received, Erika checked in on her submissive with a look of concern on her features, and when Jasmine nodded she pulled the brunette into a tight hug, bare skin and cotton against smooth brown latex as she cradled the petite young woman against her chest. "You did good," she cooed soothingly, stroking Jasmine's hair as she went limp in her bonds, tension and energy sapping out of her. "You're pretty tough, you know that? Much tougher than you look. Steel-clad, after all."

Her head a mess, her breathing shallow, Jasmine just nodded weakly against her best friend's chest, her thoughts as wild and uncontrolled as the storm raging outside the window once again.

~ ~ ~

Erika didn't know what to think.

When her hand had accidentally descended on Jasmine's pussy, the horror that had taken hold of her had felt as if claws of ice were crushing her chest, squeezing the heat out of her body and freezing her blood to ice, but to her shock, Jasmine hadn't uttered a syllable of complaint. She hadn't been upset, or angry, or called off the scene with tears in her eyes. She had asked for _more_. _Asked_ to have Erika touch her there, _hit_ here there, and it was a miracle that Erika hadn't lost control of herself at the mere suggestion.

She had always believed that Jasmine was a natural submissive, but it had never occurred to her that the shy girl from Johto might be _this_ masochistic. That she was willing to do something _this_ sexual, even after Erika's romantic overture had proven less than successful. Confused, uncertain what her next move should be, she rested her chin atop her submissive's brown-haired head, red lips smiling as the younger girl snuggled into her. "Jasmine?"

"Hmmh...?" Jasmine didn't move, but her thin body tensed against Erika's chest.

There were so many questions Erika wanted to ask, so many things that she wanted to say, but once again her nerves failed her, as they had so many times in the past. "Are you okay?"

A silent, halting nod.

"Did you... enjoy that?"

"...Yeah." Another weary little nod.

Erika swallowed, reassured but still far from comfortable with what she had done. Jasmine had asked for it, but still the thought that she might have taken advantage of her best friend needled her. "You were... really okay with being touched there?"

This time, there was a long silence before any form of answer at all.

"Can we... talk about it a little later?"

Something nameless and cruel stabbed at Erika's heart, but she could scarcely refuse. 

"...Okay."

~ ~ ~  


Restraints and latex were stripped from bodies and stored safely away, replaced by warm, snug clothing that offered gentle comfort to the two emotionally drained young women as they sat before the darkened living room windows once more, sipping tea and watching the rain dance against the window in a mirror image of their first night together.

"I wonder if this rain is ever going to cease." They had been silent for some time now, but it was Erika who broke the spell, her voice near soft enough to disappear beneath the patter of droplets on glass. "I know I keep saying it, but I truly am sorry about the weather these last few days."

"I don't mind." Her thin knees tucked against her chest, the collar Erika had bestowed upon her still buckled around her neck, Jasmine smiled into the dark, the whirling chaos in her weary head settled to stillness at last. "I like it. It's pretty."

She was beginning to sound more like herself, Erika noted, pleased and secretly, relieved. This time she had dreaded that she had truly gone too far, but as she had told her, Jasmine was far stronger than her frail looks would suggest. As resilient as the steel her Olivine Gym was known for. Perhaps things were going to be okay, after all. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm... good." Fidgeting nervously with her cup, Jasmine still sounded somewhat hesitant to speak, but speak she did, her thin voice floating through the dark like wisps of mist. "I'm good. I just... um..." More hesitation, more anxious deliberation. "I need to... think more. About... about what I feel for you." 

Erika could almost see the pink in Jasmine's cheeks flaring though the shifting shadows. 

"But I... liked what we did." The words were falling out of her mouth in a heap now, a trickle sputtering to a stream. "I had fun with you hitting me... like _that_ , but it really wasn't fair to ask to you when you're... when you feel... you know... I just got so caught up in the heat of the moment, and I stopped thinking..."

"I knew what I was doing." Erika sighed heavily, the shake of her head going unseen. "Jasmine... I have feelings for you, it's true, but I can keep them separate from my role as your dominant if I have to. I offered to top you before I ever told you how I felt, so... please, don't worry about that." She took a long sip of tea as she mulled, knowing what she had to say but wishing that she didn't need to. "Still, I think maybe we should take a break from our little game for a day or two. It will give us a chance to get our heads on straight, hmm?"

"Um... yeah." Erika could hear the disappointment in Jasmine's voice, but the younger girl didn't argue the point, reluctantly accepting the necessity of it. 

That was fortunate, for if she had, Erika doubted that she would have possessed the strength to stand by her decision.


	7. The Sun Shines Through

The next day passed slowly and pleasantly, not a word spoken of rope or spankings as Jasmine and Erika enjoyed the outbreak of sunny weather and hiked into the nearby forest, surrounding themselves with the pristine nature that Erika loved so much. All was peaceful, tranquil, the calm soaking into their bones and their souls as they crossed fleeting streams and crested steep hills, losing themselves in the beautiful woods and the company of each other.

The Bulbasaur that Erika managed to capture during the trip certainly didn't hurt the raven-haired girl's mood.

The evening came and went, the darkness finding them huddled on Erika's couch watching a show about Hoenn that Erika had insisted they watch, and before they knew it the weekend had slipped away from them and Jasmine was waking to find a note from Erika on the kitchen counter, reminding her that her host was required at the Celadon Gym all day today.

She could have gone out into the city on her own, but without Erika, shyness kept her bound as surely as any rope. Instead, she cloistered herself away in her friend's apartment, and soon no book or web page could keep her thoughts from catching up with her once again.

Erika's absence was almost palpable after days spent with her, a void by Jasmine's side, and it was impossible not to dwell on her, no matter how she tried to distract herself. She was always there at the edge of Jasmine's mind, haunting her.

Erika scampering through the falling rain.

Erika shamelessly undressing in front of her. 

Erika posing in chocolate-brown in latex.

Erika smiling and playing with her new Bulbasaur.

Just Erika.

Erika, her best friend. The girl who had always been there for her, ever since the day they had first met at Indigo Plateau, weathering the storm with her through the best and worst days of her life. Her confidant, her ally, and now her dominant, the only person in the world she could ever have trusted to order her around, tie her up... touch her...

Maybe she wasn't being honest with herself.

Maybe she was scared.

Maybe both of them deserved more than that.

~ ~ ~

The elevator doors silently slid open, and Erika stepped out into the third-floor hallway in a weary daze, her head still spinning with type matchups and battle strategies a good half hour after leaving the gym.

As much as she loved kimonos, if she were forced to wear this one for another ten minutes she was certain that she was going to suffocate. After a day of battles and meetings with city and League officials, she was ready for a hot dinner, a hotter bath and a quiet evening spent with Jasmine. She still felt guilty for leaving the poor girl on her own today, and as she made her way along the hallway to her apartment door she wondered how she was going to make it up to her...

Sighing to herself, she unlocked her apartment door and stepped inside, fending off the urge to just go and collapse face-first onto her bed-

Jasmine looked up at her from her place on the floor, kneeling neatly upon the carpet.

"...Huh?"

All semblance of eloquence deserting her, Erika barely found the presence of mind to close the door behind her before somebody happened by. Jasmine's hands were folded in her lap, her light brown hair falling free around her face, her familiar white sundress granting her an air of innocent purity, and Erika felt her chest tighten as the younger girl offered her a heartfelt smile, that same smile she had seen on her computer screen countless times in the past. "Welcome home, Erika."

"Jasmine..." Utterly taken aback, but deeply touched, Erika dropped to her knees in front of her guest, placing a loving hand on the crown of Jasmine's head and staring into her eyes, finding only warmth there. What on earth had come over her? "Why are you... down there?"

A deep breath tensed Jasmine's slight body. "I... was hoping that you would accept me."

"Accept you...?" That only confused Erika more, her dark eyes scanning Jasmine's serious face for answers. "As my submissive? You're already-"

"As your... girlfriend."

In the silence that followed, Erika wondered if she looked as if she had been hit by lightning or merely felt like it. Her mouth dropped open, her heart fluttering as she withdrew her hand and pressed it to her chest, her brain scrambling for another interpretation, another meaning of what Jasmine had said. She found none. "J-Jasmine..."

"I've thought about it. A lot." She was fidgeting now, her eyes dropping along with her confidence, but Jasmine didn't back away from what she had said, didn't shift from her place on her knees. "I... you know I've never been with anyone before, but I... I like you. And I'm..." She swallowed. Clutched at the skirt of her sundress. "I'm scared, and I don't really know what I'm doing, but I want to try. Us. If... if you still do."

Lost for words, biting her lip, Erika reached out to take Jasmine's furtive hands, squeezing them gently in her own, her heart soaring as Jasmine grasped them back. "You're sure?" she ventured, staring straight into Jasmine's anxious, wondering eyes as the brunette lifted them. "You aren't just saying this for me?"

A gentle shake of the brunette's head, long hair sweeping to and fro. "No. I'm saying it for me, too." Her fingers twisted around Erika's, seeking comfort. "I've been thinking about it all day. Yesterday, too. I... I'm not sure that I'm in love with you, but I really like you, and I..." She took a deep, steadying breath. "I want us to at least try. I-if you want to."

Her gaze flitted away again, but this time Erika simply snared the younger girl's narrow chin in her hand and tilted her face right back again, a dominating gesture that made Jasmine's breath catch and her body stiffen.

"...And you're on your knees because...?"

Jasmine's already flushed cheeks burned pinker. "I-It seemed right."

A wide smile spread across Erika's lips. The spark of dominance flared to life beneath her tired exterior, fueled by an exhilarating surge of hope that burned away her weariness in its glory. "And would it seem right if I were to kiss you?"

Jasmine hesitated, every inch the frightened doe, but her nod was the surest Erika had ever seen her give.

For all that she had wanted this, dreamed of it, Erika was far less certain. This was it. There was no going back now, no returning to exactly what they had before if this didn't work out. Whether they were lovers or not they would always be friends, but if she did this, there would always be something different about their relationship after tonight. There would always be the time they had kissed on the floor of her apartment, no matter what they said or did afterward.

But... wasn't it worth taking the chance?

Both of them were shaking, but Erika squeezed Jasmine's hands one last time and offered her a reassuring smile, taking charge despite her misgivings. She was older, experienced, the dominant, the one who had set them down this path together, and it was up to her to take control, her palm lifting to cup Jasmine's soft cheek, her lips slowly gliding in to claim Jasmine's.

The kiss was apprehensive, awkward, unlike any she had shared with the forceful Kyla or either of her other partners, and Erika found herself dominating it without meaning to, overwhelming the timid press of Jasmine's lips with her own, leaning into the clumsy kiss and forcing the slighter girl backward. Only Jasmine's palms against the carpet kept her half-upright, her eyes slipping shut as she rode the fierce embrace out, artlessly kissing back in a vain attempt to prove that she knew what she was doing.

Erika broke the kiss with a giddy smile, as flushed as the other girl as she drew back and surveyed her work. As she watched, Jasmine's eyes fluttered open, a finger rising to touch her lip and a little grin flitting across her face, and it took all of the strength Erika had not to kiss her again.

~ ~ ~

She settled for a shower rather than a bath, but Erika didn't skimp on the meal, humming to herself all the while as she prepared dinner for the both of them. Her heart soared, her head scrambled to catch up, her lips turned up in a constant smile from the moment she began to the moment they had finished, and she wasn't the only one beaming all evening long.

The more they talked, the more they laughed, the more certain Erika became that both of them had made the right choice. They had known each other for so long that they fit together like a hand in a glove, and though nervous anticipation crackled in the air between them, there was no trace of regret on either of their faces. It simply felt... right.

That didn't make things any less awkward when Erika decided to broach the topic of sex.

"Jasmine?" It took her forever to get the words right in her head, but the moment Erika opened her mouth she wondered if she could perhaps have afforded to dwell on the subject for a little longer. A year might have sufficed. "Do you, er... later..."

Heavens, this was awkward. With Kyla, with her other girlfriends, things had simply flowed along their natural course - a kiss had become touching, groping, shedding clothes in a sweaty tangle of legs and arms, but if she came on so strongly with Jasmine she irrationally feared that she might break her. She wanted nothing more than to lure her into her bedroom and pounce, but... no, no, that was for next time, perhaps.

Jasmine was looking at her expectantly, and Erika belatedly recalled the sentence she had left hanging. "Er... with me... do you think that you would want to..."

"You... want us to sleep together?"

How in the world had shy Jasmine blurted that out before she could?! Appalled at her own lack of courage, now of all times, Erika nodded. ...Wait, unless she meant... "I-I mean sex," she clarified with fire in her cheeks, morbidly wondering which of them would die of embarrassment first. "Of course, you don't have to say yes! I just thought that you might want to..."

"I-I'd like to." She was plainly _very_ nervous, but there was no doubt on Jasmine's serious face. Apprehension, yes, but not doubt. "I just... don't think I'll be good at it..."

"Nobody is at first." Experience had taught Erika that that wasn't _quite_ true, but the white lie seemed to reassure Jasmine, so she swallowed her guilt and took her friend's smaller hand from across the table. "Don't worry. I'll show you what to do. We'll take it step by step, okay?"

Jasmine nodded and shyly smiled her understanding, and Erika tried very hard not to skip a few steps.

~ ~ ~

When Erika asked Jasmine if she would like to undress, the brunette decided to take it as a command.

The bedroom seemed almost intolerably hot even with her dress and bra and panties scattered around her feet, but there was nothing more she could shed, standing naked and nervous at the foot of Erika's bed as her friend - her lover - drew her underwear down her legs and kicked them off, just as bare as she. There was nothing between them now but air, their bodies exposed to each others' eyes in full, and while there was a world of difference between Erika's well-endowed form and Jasmine's thin, girlish one, both found themselves fascinated, wanting.

Jasmine was the one to make the first move, surprising Erika once again, the younger girl's bare feet tracing a halting path across the carpet to Erika's side, eager yet desperately nervous. She knew what to do, in theory - she had read plenty and even seen a little during her scandalous gathering of information online - but reading and viewing were one thing and actually doing was something else, and when she actually reached Erika she stopped, unsure, every bit the anxious virgin.

Erika reached out to cup Jasmine's cheek, thumb gliding against the younger girl's lips in a silent plea for permission, and Jasmine's tiny nod granted it, invited the kiss that Erika was only too happy to press against her lips. It started gentle, slow, but when Jasmine began to apply what Erika was teaching her and kissed her back the embrace intensified, gathering force like an avalanche rumbling down a mountainside, eager bodies pressing against one another, hands finding a wealth of new places to explore.

Breathless, they broke apart only to kiss again, fierce and hard, and it was sloppy and clumsy but Erika enjoyed it all the more for that, proud to be the one Jasmine was working so hard to please, and she returned that effort with her own, claiming control once more and driving Jasmine back toward the bed in stumbling steps, guiding her down to the waiting covers and pinning her there, hands around wrists, drinking down her heated gasp as she lashed Jasmine's tongue with her own.

Then she drew back with a wet smile, peering down at her flushed little girlfriend, licking her lips as she caught her breath. "I'm not going... too fast for you... am I?"

"N-no..." So red that she looked as if she might burn up, Jasmine didn't struggle, didn't complain, just stared back up at Erika, entranced. "Are... are you going to tie me up?"

"Do you want me to?" Erika hadn't planned to bring it up, not their first time, but the tiny nod Jasmine gave her in return had her diving for her box of toys, her bare breasts swaying enticingly beneath her as she slid back and stooped. 

Jasmine knew that she should be feeling jealous, especially now that her small breasts were in full view and inviting comparison, but they had felt _so good_ pressed against hers, soft and warm and plump, that right now she would have been satisfied just to touch them, maybe squeeze them a little...

Yet when Erika flipped her over onto her stomach and pulled her hands behind her back, neatly folding them elbow to wrist, Jasmine couldn't find it in herself to complain.

For the first time Erika's hands seemed less than expertly sure, her fingers fumbling and awkward as they wove rope around Jasmine's arms and bound them tightly together, but her knots were no less secure for her nervousness, deftly imprisoning her submissive in the clutches of her soft red rope. Control slipped away from Jasmine with every tightened coil, and she welcomed its loss, allowing Erika to take over, to guide her as she always had, to wrap ropes around her chest and shoulders and bind her upper arms against her sides.

The harness of rope her new lover had woven was supposed to emphasize her breasts, lifting and squeezing, but to Jasmine's annoyance she noticed little difference as Erika helped her sit up, all of the tightness with none of the flattery. It certainly rendered her helpless, however; her arms were held immobile, her hands left nothing to grasp, and if she had been of a mind to fight off the fresh kiss Erika pressed against her mouth she would have been powerless to, her slight body instinctively squirming in the ropes as Erika had her way.

When their mouths parted, breathless, a quick gasp of air was all that Erika needed before diving back in, her lips smothering Jasmine's neck in kisses, trailing down to her snugly bound chest and peppering wet pecks down her collarbone. Her breast was the next target, her nipple taken within Erika's mouth and gently sucked on, and the little grunts and whimpers that flowed from Jasmine in response stoked the older girl's lusts to even greater heights. She pushed Jasmine down to the bed once again, straddling her, finding nothing but anxious want in those wide brown eyes as she peered down at her and grinned.

"I have you right where I want you," she murmured, her dark gaze glittering with glee, and her grin widened at Jasmine's sharp intake of breath, precisely the response she had desired. "Are you ready?"

A tense but eager nod.

"Say it."

Jasmine swallowed. "I'm... ready."

A sly glance between the brunette's parted legs proved the point. She was visibly wet, her face flushed and breathing ragged, and Erika flirted with the idea of asking if she could take a picture to remember this by, only discarding the idea when she saw the need and the vulnerability in Jasmine's eyes as she looked back up at her, naked and bound. No, now was about Jasmine, about her first time, and while she had _asked_ to be tied up for the occasion, Erika knew better than to push things too far.

Instead, she slipped her fingers between Jasmine's thighs and toyed with the slick, warm flesh she found there, enjoying the way she gasped and jolted as a fingertip slid against her folds.

"It's different when someone else touches down there, isn't it?" Erika asked with a devious smile, tracing gently, nudging Jasmine's clit, making the poor girl whine with need. "Does it feel nice?"

Jasmine nodded sharply, her eyes squeezed shut.

"Tell me." Her smirk went unseen as she withdrew her glistening fingers from between Jasmine's thighs, leaving her squirming in disappointment on the bed. "It feels nice, doesn't it?"

"Y-yes..." Jasmine managed, her eyes cracking open to glare at Erika in frustration, her thighs clamping together in a vain attempt to regain what had been robbed from her. Regretting asking to be bound now, Erika had no doubt.

"Do you want me to continue?" The most innocent expression she could summon was hardly innocent at all, mischievous and hungry. She crooked her fingers in the air, her meaning plain to even innocent Jasmine. "Say it."

"Please..." Jasmine bit her lip, spreading her legs again, her damp core invitingly revealed. Only in her wildest dreams had Jasmine been so wanting, so sexual, and Erika felt her own face burning with the intensity of her blush as she smiled, curling her fingers back into her palm. 

"You're being awfully quiet there," she observed, tilting her head as she mused. "Perhaps I should gag you if you have nothing to say anyway?"

She had not been entirely serious, but the look on Jasmine's face said it all, her silence deafening. She wanted it.

Heavens, what had Erika done to deserve this girl?

She slid off of the bed and plucked the ball gag from the box, dangling the red rubber sphere over Jasmine's head by its straps as she returned, and when her lover opened her mouth to accept it Erika didn't hesitate to pop it inside, strapping it in place gently but firmly, admiring the way Jasmine's lips closed around it as the younger girl accustomed herself to its bulky presence. She kept her hands well clear of sensitive areas as she eased Jasmine over onto her stomach, bringing her bound arms up to the light, the lack of intimate touch leaving her submissive even more frustrated as drool began to leak onto the covers.

Then, her fingers found Jasmine's clit again, feather-light touches making her whimper through her gag and whine for more, and this time Erika was happy to deliver, sliding one fingertip into her slick passage, then another. Slowly, carefully, she spread Jasmine open around her digits, operating by feel, her eyes on her lover's reactions as she painstakingly drove inside her depths.

From the way Jasmine mewled and bucked against Erika's hand, she was enjoying herself as much as her dominant.

This time, Erika did not let up. She kept up the pace, moving her fingers in and out of Jasmine's soaking pussy, curling, turning, using all of the tricks she had learned from her private moments and her time with other women, and Jasmine had no chance, her orgasm coming in a moaning, thrashing rush. She cried out through her gag and tensed against the bed as she contracted around Erika's fingers, drenching the older girl's hand and the covers beneath, her eyes squeezed shut once more, her toes curling toward her soles.

As fun as it would have been to push her further, bring her to a second orgasm and even a third, Erika slipped her sopping fingers out of her breathlessly sagging lover and wiped them dry on the covers. After all, she would have to wash them anyway after the mess her girlfriend had made.

~ ~ ~

Her girlfriend.

No matter how many times those words passed through Jasmine's head, they were entwined with a feeling of disbelief. Disbelief that this had somehow _happened_ , that her vacation in Kanto with her best friend had turned into love and sexual submission in a matter of days, that _she_ , shy, flat-chested, boring Jasmine, had a _girlfriend_. Even with Erika's hand wound tightly around hers as they sat together on the sofa, her body still warm and sated from sex, it was just impossible for her to absorb.

She was with Erika.

A _girl_.

_Erika._

"You're awfully quiet." Pale moonlight shone into the darkened room, illuminating Erika's querying look as she tilted her head toward her lover, her dark hair as messy as if she had been the one bound and thrashing on her bed just a half hour ago. She had thrown on loose fitting pants and a shirt in the aftermath of their first time, while Jasmine was wearing her sundress once again, though her underwear remained where it lay on Erika's bedroom floor. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes." Jasmine's smile was weary, but genuine. "I'm... a little overwhelmed, but... I'm okay."

Erika chuckled softly, her hand squeezing Jasmine's as her gaze returned to the moonlit street beyond the apartment window. "You're not the only one who feels somewhat overwhelmed at the moment. You aren't the one who came home after work to find her crush kneeling at the door."

Jasmine giggled, hoping that Erika didn't notice the self-consciousness behind her smile. "Was it too much?"

"It was certainly one way to make your point." The older girl scooted closer, releasing Jasmine's hand and wrapping her arm around the brunette's narrow waist, drawing her close against her body and planting a neat little kiss against her temple. "Don't worry, it was charming. Still, most couples leave the kneeling for the proposal..."

Anything Jasmine could think of to say would have come out in a stammered, red-faced mess had she tried. Instead, she kept her mouth shut, grateful for the pale glow of the moon washing over her blushing face as she rested her head on Erika's shoulder, draping a wave of light brown hair over the older girl's slowly rising and falling chest. The physical intimacy was still foreign to her, even after all they had done together tonight, but she could get used to it.

Even if they lived a region apart, she could get used to it.

~ ~ ~

"Jasmine?"

Sitting quietly on the moonlit sofa with Jasmine's head resting on her shoulder was the closest Erika had ever felt to being in paradise, but though it pained her to break the silence, there was something that needed to be said.

Jasmine barely moved, her head lifting just a fraction. "Mm...?"

Erika hesitated, allowing the tranquil atmosphere to endure for just a few more pleasant moments before she wet her lips and continued, spoiling the mood in a single sentence.

"...I'm a little horny."

The weight of Jasmine's head lifted from her shoulder as her lover sat bolt upright, stricken by embarrassment, just as Erika had expected she would. "E-Erika!"

"Oh, come now." Erika climbed to her feet, her hands sliding to her hips, standing silhouetted against the moonlight and the luminescent world beyond. "I have needs too. You got to have an orgasm and I didn't, and I'm going to go and take care of that, if you don't mind." A thoughtful, calculated pause. "Of course, you are welcome to come and watch if you like..."

She extended a hand, and Jasmine didn't hesitate to take it. Maybe talking her into playing an active part wouldn't be so hard after all.

~ ~ ~

Days disappeared and nights crept by, and when the time came for Jasmine to board the magnet train and travel back to Johto, Erika was there to see her off with a smile and a kiss and a promise that they would see each other soon. Her vacation was already booked with the Kanto League, and until then they would have what they had always had, phone calls and video chats and a relationship now even closer.

As the train pulled away from the Saffron City platform, Jasmine's slender form and spikes of light brown hair at the window rapidly receding from view, Erika wondered how long it would take her to find the ball gag she had slipped into her belongings as a parting gift. Watching her wear it through a screen might not be as entertaining as putting it on her in person, but until next month rolled around and her already eagerly awaited vacation began, she would take what she could get.


End file.
